THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 
OF  CALIFORNIA 

PRESENTED  BY 

PROF.  CHARLES  A.  KOFOID  AND 
MRS.  PRUDENCE  W.  KOFOID 


PHYSIOLOGY, 


ANIMAL  AND  MENTAL: 

APPLIED   TO   THE  '"•"• 


PRESERVATION    AND    RESTORATION 


OF 


HEALTH  OF  BODY,  AND  POWER  OF  MIND. 

I 

BY  O.  S.  FOWLER, 

PRACTICAL    PHRENOLOGIST. 


"A   SOUND   MIND   IN    A   HEALTHY    BODY. 
FIFTH    EDITION. 


FOWLERS  AND  WELLS, 

PHRENOLOGICAL    CABINET,    131    NASSAU    STREET* 

AND   BT    BOOKSELLERS    GENERALLY. 

J  851. 


n 

'.• 


Entered,  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  i847, 

BY  O.  8.  FOWLER, 

tc  ihe  Clerk's  Office  of  the  District  Court  of  the  Southern  DistricI 
of  New  York.      '*' 


SYMBOLICAL    HEAD. 


NUMBERING  AND  DEFINITION  OF  THE  ORGANS 


1.  AMATIVENESS,  Sexual  and  connubial  love. 

2.  PHILOPROGENITIVENESS,  Parental  love. 

3.  ADHESIVENESS,  Friendship — sociability. 
A.  UNION  FOR  LIFE,  Love  of  one  only. 

4.  INHABITIVENKSS,  Love  of  home — patriot- 

ism. 

5.  CONTINUITY.  Completion — one  tiling  at 

a  time. 

6.  COMBATIVENESS,  Resistance — defence. 

7.  DESTRUCTIVENSSS,  Executivencss — force. 

8.  ALIMENTIVENESS,  Appetite,  hunger. 

9  ACQUISITIVENESS,  Frugality — accumula- 
tion. 

10.  SKCRETIVZNESS,  Policy — management 

11.  CAUTIOUSNESS,  Prudence,  provision. 

12.  APPROBATIVENESS,  Ambition — display. 
J3.  SELF-ESTEEM,    Self-respect    and    confi- 
dence— dignity. 

14.  FIRMNESS,  Decision — perseverance. 

15.  CONSCIENTIOUSNESS,  Justice — equity. 
J6,  HOPE,  Expectation — enterprise. 

17  SPIRITUALITY,  Intuition — prescience — 
spiritual  rererv — communion  with 
God. 


18.  VENERATION,    Devotion — worship,    f» 

epect. 

19.  BENEVOLENCE,  Kindness — goodness. 

20.  CONSTRUCTIVENESS,  Mechanical  ingenuity 
'21.  IDEALITY,  Refinement — taste — purity 

B.  SUBLIMITY,  Love  of  grandeur. 

22.  IMITATION,  Copying — patterning. 

23.  MIRTHFULNESS,  Jocoseness — wit — fun. 

24.  INDIVIDUALITY,  Observation. 

25.  FORM,  Recollection  of  shape. 

26.  SIZE,  Measuring  by  the  eye. 

27.  WEIGHT,  Balancing — climbing. 

28.  COLOR,  Judgment  of  colors. 

29.  ORDER,  Method — system — arrangement 

30.  CALCULATION,  Mental  arithmetic. 

31.  LOCALITY,  Recollection  of  places. 

32.  EVENTUALITY,  Memory  of  facts. 

33.  TIME,  Cognizance  of  duration. 

34.  TUNE,  Music — melody  by  ear. 

35.  LANGUAGE,  Expression  of  ideas. 

36.  CAUSALITY,  Applying  causes  to  e.Teota. 

37.  COMPARISON,  Inductive  reasoning. 

C.  HUMAN  NATURE,  Perception  of  motive* 

D.  AGBEEABLENESS,  Pleasantness — suaritj 


-».  •.  «^J  e  'ft  4f> 


TABLE  OF  DIRECTIONS 

FOR     IMPROVING    THE    HEALTH, 


1 

Relative 
strength. 

Cultivation. 

ll 

j 

Reduction  in 
children.  ' 

Health 

21* 

26 

163 

Vitality 

28 

166 

163 

Nutrition 

29 

63  64 

77  78 

Appetite 

69 

70717478 

Perspiration  ) 

104 

107  108 
111  112 

110 

174 

Sleep 

126 

129 

129 

129 

Temperature  ) 

94 

96  98 
115 

98  99 

113 

Muscles 

136 

138  140 
143 

145 

Brain 

149 

Vol.  iii. 

Vol.  iii. 

162 

162 

Nerves 

153 

155  157 

156  162 

162 

Proportion 

162 

162 

162 

Precocity 

162 

162 

f 

70  71  72 

Dyspepsia      2 

168 

164  169 

164 

1 

170 

Palpitation 

171 

171 

Consumption 

172 

173  175 

174 

Insanity 

176 

176 

176 

*  These  figures  refer,  not  to  pages,  but  to  those  numbered  paragraphs, 
or  headings,  found  throughout  the  work. 

' 


EXPLANATION  OF  THE  TABLE. 

THE  accompanying  Table,  when  marked,  will  enable  those  who  may 
secure  the  requisite  examination,  to  refer  to  those  passages  which  point 
out  the  physiological  excess,  defect,  or  derangement,  which  causes  their 
debility  or  disease,  as  well  as  show  them  how  to  ward  off  predispositions 
to  those  diseases  to  which  they  are  most  liable. 

A  dot,  or  any  other  mark,  with  the  pen,  will  be  placed  in  the  square 
containing  the  number  of  the  paragraphs  which  give  the  required  direc- 
tions. But  where  several  persons  are  marked  on  the  same  table,  a  hori- 
zontal stroke,  or  dash,  —  will  be  used  for  the  first ;  a  perpendicular 
erected  on  it  thus  -1-  for  the  second ;  this  perpendicular  continued  below 
the  horizontal,  making  a  cross,  thus  -J-,  for  the  third;  a  horizontal  curve 
over  this  cross,  thus  -f-,  for  the  fourth ;  under  for  the  fifth,  to  the  right 
hand  for  the  sixth,  and  the  left  hand  for  the  seventh ;  so  that  the  following 
mark  (+)  stands  for  all  seven. 

The  written  figures  in  the  second  column  indicate  the  relative  vigor 
of  the  health,  vitality,  and  the  various  functions  opposite  to  which  they  are 
written,  the  scale  varying  from  1  to  7.  Thus :  6  written  opposite  to 
Vitality,  signifies  that  it  is  abundant,  while  2  signifies  that  it  is  deficient; 
4  signifies  average ;  3  below  par ;  5  rather  above  ;  7  very  abundant ,  and 
1  very  deficient  Several  persons  can  be  marked  in  this  column  also. 


LIST    OF    ILLUSTRATIONS. 


Symbolical  h«ad 

1.  Under  jaw  of  the  cow 8<J 

2.  Jaws  of  the  tiger 82 

3.  Front  view  of  the  teeth  of  a  monkey 83 

4.  Side  view  of  the  teeth  of  a  monkey 83 

5.  Side  view  of  the  teeth  of  a  baboon 83 

6.  Skull  of  Jaco,  a  male  ourang-outang 84 

7.  The  teeth 117 

8.  The  stomach  and  intestinal  canal 139 

9.  Intestines,  lacteals,  and  mesentery  glands 139 

10.  The  liver,  gall,  pancreas, ^and  kidneys ^ 145 

11.  The  structure  of  the  intestines 148 

12.  The  heart 152 

13.  Shape  and  structure  of  the  lungs 157 

14.  The  lungs  and  stomach 160 

15.  The  structure  of  a  gland 217 

16.  The  skeleton 221 

17.  The  muscles  of  the  arm 224 

18.  Location  of  the  cerebral  organ  of  motion 225 

19.  The  muscles : 226 

20.  The  structure  of  the  brain 252 

21.  A  perpendicular  section  of  the  brain  and  skull , 253 

22.  The  nerves  of  the  brain 255 

23    The  corpus  callosum 256 

24.  The  nervous  system 260 

25.  Head  of  GranviUe  Mellen  ..  .293 


it' 


GENERAL    PREFACE 


To  study  single  departments  of  man's  complicated 
nature — as  his  anatomy,  or  physiology,  or  phrenology — • 
separately,  furnishes  a  fpartial  and  often  erroneous  view 
of  it  as  a  whole.  To  obtain  anything  like  a  complete 
knowledge  of  him  requires  that  his  constitution  be  stud- 
ied in  its  COLLECTIVE  capacity.  He  must  be  known 
not  by  sections,  but  as  a  UNIT  ;  for  in  no  other  way  can 
the  reciprocal  bearings  and  complex  inter-relations  of 
the  multifarious  laws  of  his  being  be  understood.  How 
useless,  how  imperfect  a  knowledge  of  anatomy,  unless 
accompanied  by  that  of  both  the  physiology  and  the  men- 
tality !  And  the  latter  two  without  the  former  !  And  the 
latter  without  both  the  others  !  Nor  should  this  sectional 
mode  of  study  be  longer  tolerated.  The  UNITARIAN 
aspect  of  man,  and  means  of  improving  him,  forms  the 
ground- work  of  these  volumes.  How  far  they  succeed 
the  reader  must  decide.  They  probably  constitute  the 
first  attempt  to  put  side  by  side  the  laws  of  inter-relation 
existing  between  the  body 'and  mind. 

As  our  subject  is  naturally  subdivided  into  three  de- 
partments, it  has  been  divided  into  three  volumes — the 
first,  devoted  to  the  preservation  and  restoration  of 
of  health,  the  inter-relations  of  body  and  mind,  and  the 
improvement  of  the  mentality  by  improving  the  physi- 


IV  GENERAL    PREFACE. 

ology  ;  the  second,  to  the  regulation  of  the  feelings  and 
perfection  of  the  moral  character ;  and  the  third,  to 
intellectual  cultivation.  A  system  of  numbering  the 
paragraphs  or  heads  of  the  subjects  treated,  and  a  refer- 
ence to  them  in  the  text  by  raised  figures,  called  supe- 
riors, renders  a  reference  from  each,  to  all  perfectly  easy 
and  expeditious,  so  that,  after  a  point  has  been  once 
presented,  it  can  be  referred  to  specifically,  without  cir- 
cumlocution, or  repetition,  or  disfiguring  the  page.  Yet 
each  volume,  being  complete  in  itself,  can  be  read  sepa- 
rately. 


PREFACE. 


POWER  of  mind  depends  on  vigor  of  body.  Even 
the  moral  virtues  are  influenced — almost  controlled — 
by  physiological  conditions.  The  laws  of  health,  there- 
fore, however  important  intrinsically,  assume  a  momen- 
tous rank  in  consequence  of  their  controlling  power  over 
talent  and  moral  excellence,  and  should  be  studied  in 
this  their  mental  aspect  mainly.  Yet  hitherto  this  re- 
ciprocity of  body  and  mind  has  been  almost  wholly 
overlooked.  Physiological  works  stop  with  laying  the 
foundation  merely,  just  where  they  should  begin  to 
apply  their  principles  to  mental  improvement.  Such 
application  it  is  the  object  of  this  volume  to  make. 
The  preservation  and  improvement  of  health,  as  a  means 
of  developing  the  TALENTS  and  MORAL  VIRTUES,  are  its 
all-pervading  idea.  It  shows  what  influences  the  various 
states  of  the  body  and  brain  exert  over  the  mind — the 
effects  of  various  diets  and  regimen  on  character,  and 
the  improvement  and  deterioration  of  mind  consequent 
on  cerebral  vigor  and  debility. 

The  author  had  not  prosecuted  those  phrenological  in- 
vestigations, which  constitute  his  passion  as  well  as  pro- 
fession, far,  before  he  perceived  that  the  virtues,  vices, 
capabilities,  and^ntire  character,  are  controlled  quite  as 
effectually  by  the  physiology  as  phrenology.  This  led 
him  to  trace  out  those  LAWS  which  govern  this  inter- 
relation, and  the  results  of  his  observations,  in  this 
1* 


Vi  PREFACE. 

almost  unexplored  field  of  human  inquiry,  this  volume 
embodies. 

No  more  of  the  ANATOMY  of  the  body  and  its  organs 
has  been  given  than  was  requisite  to  illustrate  and  en- 
force their  physiology,  and  the  preservation  and  restora- 
tion of  their  respective  functions.  The  vito-chymical 
discoveries  of  the  great  Liebig — that  father  of  "animal 
chymistry," — the  practical  value  of  which  surpass  all 
other  modern  advancements  of  science,  have  been  par- 
tially popularized  and  applied  in  this  work,  and  thus  a 
most  important  desideratum  in  part  supplied. 

Its  health  prescriptions,  as  such,  have  had  primary 
reference  to  the  PRESERVATION  of  health  and  the  PRE- 
VENTION of  disease  ;  yet  these  same  prescriptions  are 
as  effectual  in  CURING  as  in  preventing.  It  attempts  to 
qualify  every  man  to  become  his  own  doctor,  and  espe- 
cially would  impart  to  parents  that  physiological  knowl- 
edge, the  seasonable  application  of  which  will  enable 
them  to  l\,eep  their  families  in  health,  as  well  as  to  rout 
disease  in  its  incipient  stages,  not,  however,  by  dosing 
down  medicines  as  much  as  by  an  observance  of  the  laws 
and  conditions  of  health.  Nature  is  the  great  physician. 
She  alone  can  restore  ;  and  in  her  cures,  unlike  poisonous 
medicines,  she  fortifies  instead  of  undermining  the  const! 
tution.  To  guard  against  disease — but  when  contracted, 
to  show  patients  how  to  restore  health  by  fulfilling  its 
conditions — is  our  main  design.  And  if  some  of  these 
prescriptions  seem  strange,  yet  are  they  not  abundantly 
supported  by  proof?  At  least,  so  certain  is  the  authoi 
of  the  correctness  and  practical  value  of  all  the  direc- 
tions and  prescriptions  contained  herein,  that  he  puts 
them  in  RIGID  practice — unwilling  that  his  preaching 
should  be  in  opposition  to  his  CONDUCT.^ 

Still  further  to  enhance  the  practical  value  of  fhe 
work,  a  table  has  been  prepared,  in  which  applicants 
can  be  directed,  first,  what  particular  functions  they  re- 


PREFACE.  yil 

quire  to  cultivate,  and  referred  to  those  parts  of  the 
work,  especially  paragraphs,  which  tell  them  how  to 
effect  such  cultivation. 

May  this  volume,  both  singly  and  in  conjunction  with 
its  successors,  go  forth  to  lesson  human  suffering,  to 
restore  and  enhance  the  blessings  of  health  and  life,  and 
above  all,  to  promote  MORAL  excellence  and  INTELLEC- 
TUAL progression. 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER  I. 

HE/  ^TH ITS    LAWS    AND    PRESERVATION. 

SECTION  I. 

HAI'FIINESS,    THE    NATURAL   CONSEQUENCE    OF    LAW    OBEYED  ;    AND 
SUFFERING,  OF  LAW  VIOLATED. 

PAGE. 

1.  Happiness  constitutional. — 2.  Amount  of  happiness  attainable. — 
3.  Pain  exists. — 4.  Pain  not  necessary. — 5.  Our  world  governed 
by  inflexible  causation.— 6.  All  pain  the  consequence  of  violated 
law. — 7.  Rewards  and  penalties  self-acting.  8.  These  laws  cog- 
nizable.—  9.  Man  can  apply  them. —  10.  Happiness  and  suffer- 
ing analogous  to  the  law  obeyed  or  broken. — 11.  Importance  of 
understanding  these  laws.  — 12.  Object  of  all  education.  —  Id. 
Physiological  and  phrenological  education.  ...  19 — 30 

SECTION  II. 

RECIPROCATION  EXISTING  BETWEEN  BODY  AND  MIND. 

1 4.  Man  a  physical  and  mental  being. — 15.  Mind  and  body  perfectly 
inter-related. — 16.  Effected  by  means  of  the  brain — the  organ  of 
the  mind. — 17.  Universality  of  this  reciprocity. — 18.  Operating  on 
the  mind  through  the  body. — 19.  Importance  of  understanding 
these  relations.  ......  30 — 37 

SECTION  III. 

HEALTH ITS  VALUE,  FEASIBILITY,  AND  DUTY. 

20.  Health  defined. --21.  Value  of  health.— 22.  Sickness  costly.- 
23.  Disease  painful. — 24.  Sickness  and  death  not  providential,  but 
governed  by  law.  —  25.  To  be  weaned'  from   the   world. — 26. 
Health  attainable — ryontaneous. — 27.  Health  a  duty:  sickness  and 
premature  death  siafrfJ.  -  -  38 — 51 

CHAPTER  II. 

FOOD. 
SECTION  I. 

ITS  NECESSITY  AND  SELECTION. 

28.  Man's  requisition  for  vitality. — 29.  Requisition  for  food. —  30. 
Organized  bodies  alone  edible.— 31.  Selection  of  food. — 32.  Dif- 
ferent diets  feed  different  powers. — 33.  Unperverted  appetite  an 
infallible  directory. — 34.  Appetite  liable  to  become  perverted. — 
35.  The  true  issue. — 36.  A  fundamental  principle  of  dietetics. — 
37.  Animal  food  excites  propensity. — 38.  Flesh  eating  contrasted 
with  vegetable  eating,  39.  "  Meat  gives  force  and  strength." — 


X  CONTENTS. 

FAfeK. 

40.  Isolated  facts.— 41.  Experience  of  the  Bible  Christians.-  42. 
Animal  food  blunts  moral  sentiment.  43.  Slaughter-house  cruel- 
ties.— 44.  A  flesh  diet  subjects  morality  to  propensity. — 45.  Ani- 
mal food  shortens  and  enfeebles  life. — 46.  The  human  teeth  not 
carnivorous. — 47.  A  flesh  diet  wasteful. — 48.  Fruit  and  grain  more 
palatable  than  meat. — 49.  Animal  food  blunts  taste. — 50.  A  bread 
and  fruit  diet  nourishes  moral  sentiment. — 51.  Vegetables  furnish 
all  the  nutritions  elements  required  in  the  vital  process.  -  15 — ?9 

SECTION  II. 

BREAD,  PASTRY,  FRUIT,  MILK,  SWEETS,  BUTTER,  AND    ESCULENTS. 

52.  Bread  and  its  preparation. — 53.  Coarse  and  fine  flour  bread. — 
54.  Leavened  and  unleavened  bread. — 55.  Rice,  rye,  oatmeal,  bai- 
ley, etc. — 56.  Pastry,  eggs,  and  spices. — 57.  Fruit. — 58.  Sweets. 
— 59.  Milk,  butter,  and  cheese. — 60.  Peas,  beans,  potatoes,  onions, 
beets,  carrots,  turnips,  squashes. — 61.  Cucumbers,  radishes,  and 
immature  esculents. — 62.  Nuts.  ....  99 — 115 

SECTION  III. 

HOW  TO  EAT— -OR  MASTICATION,   QUANTITY,  TIME,  ETC. 

63.  Mastication — the  teeth — their  names  and  description. — 64.  Sa- 
liva, its  office  and  admixture  with  food. — 65.  The  right  quantity  of 
.food.— 66.  Three  classes  of  facts.— 67.  Parr,  Cornaro,  Dr.  Cheyne, 


luncheons,  etc. — 74.  The  best  time  for  eating. — 75.  The  digestive 
process. — 76.  Structure  of  the  stomach  and  intestinal  canal. — 77 
The  motion  of  the  stomach.— 78.  Exercise  after  meals  and  noon- 
ings.— 79.  Location  and  form  of  the  liver,  gall,  pancreas,  and  kid- 
neys. -  -  116—145 

SECTION  IV. 

THE    DUODENUM,    LIVER,  PANCREAS,  INTESTINES,  AND    MESENTARY 
GLANDS,  AND  THEIR  FUNCTIONS. 

80.  Chyle.— 81.  The  lacteal  vessels.    -  -  -     146—149 

CHAPTER  III. 

CIRCULATION,    RESPIRATION,    PERSPIRATION,    AND    SLEEP. 
SECTION  I. 

THE  HEART ITS  STRUCTURE  AND  OFFICE. 

82.  Importance  of  circulation.— 83.  The  heart — its  structure  and 
office. — 84.  The  circulatory  system.  ...  150 — 155 

SECTION  II. 

THE  LUNGS — 'THEIR  STRUCTURE  AND  FUNCTIONS. 

85.  Respiration  and  its  importance.  —  86.  Requisition  arid  supply 
of  oxygen. — 87.  Means  employed  to  inflate  the  lungs. — 38.  Struc- 
ture of  the  lungs.  —  89.  Introduction  of  oxygen  into  the  circula- 
tion.— 90.  Animal  heat. — 91.  Capillary  system  of  the  bloor'  vessels. 
— 92.  Combustion. — 93.  Carbonic  acid — its  formation  aud  exit.— 


CONTENTS.  XI 

PAGE. 

94  The  amount  of  heat. — 95.  The  due  regulation  of  animal  heat. 
— 96.  Summer  and  winter  food. — 97.  Meat  in  winter. — 98.  Requi- 
sition of  fresh  air,  especially  for  children. — 99.  The  vitiated  atmo- 
sphere of  the  school-room. — 100.  Ventilation  in  general. — 101.  The 
due  ventilation  of  sleeping  apartments. — 102.  Blue  veins,  a  sign  of 
insufficient  breathing.  ...  155 — 179 

SECTION  III. 

PERSPIRATION,  OR   THE   STRUCTURE,    FUNCTIONS,    AND   CLEANSING 
OF   THE  SKIN. 

103.  Water  essential  to  life. — 104.  Perspiration. — 105.  The  skin  and 
its  structure. — 106.  Insensible  perspiration,  and  its  importance. — 
107.  Importance  of  keeping  the  pores  of  the  skin  open. — 108. 
Colds  and  their  consequences. — 109.  The  prevention  of  colds. — 
110.  Baths,  and  their  modes  of  application. — 111.  The  cure  of 
colds  by  perspiration. — 112.  Glass-blowers.  -  -  179 — 198 

SECTION  IV. 

THE     REGULATION    OF   THE    TEMPERATURE    BY    FIRE    AND    CLOTH- 
ING  THEIR  KINDS  AND  AMOUNTS. 

113.  Cooling  effects  of  perspiration. — 114.  The  deficiency  of  animal 
heat. — 115.  Fire— evils  of  its  excess.  — 116.  Different  kinds  of 
fuel,  stoves,  etc. — 117.  Fire  necessary  when  the  constitution  is 
weak. — 118.  Clothes,  and  their  necessity. — 119.  Quantity  of  cloth- 
ing requisite. — 120.  The  clothing  of  children. — 121.  Change  of 
raiment. — 122.  The  quantity  of  clothing,  flannels,  silks. — 123.  Head 
and  neck  attire. — 124.  The  hands  and  arms. — 125.  Warm  feet.  198 — 210 

SECTION  V. 

SLEEP — ITS  NECESSITY,  FUNCTION,  DURATION,  SEASON,  PROMOTION, 
POSTURES,  AND  APPARATUS. 

126.  Its  necessity  and  office. — 127.  Amount  and  duration  of  sleep. — 
128.  Season  —  early  rising.  — 129.  Promotion.  —  130.  Beds  and 
bedding.  .......  210—216 

SECTION  VI. 

THE  GLANDULAR  SYSTEM,  AND  ABSORBENTS. 
131.  Necessity  and  structure. — 132.  Inter-relation  of  the  glandular 
system  and  mind. — 133.  The  absorbents.  -  -    216—218 

CHAPTER  IV. 

LOCOMOTION ITS   APPARATUS   AND   NECESSITY. 

SECTION  I. 

THE  OSSEOUS  SYSTEM. 

134.  The  expenditure  of  vitality.  — 135.  The  osseous  system — its 
necessity  and  structure.  -  -  -  -  218 — 223 

SECTION  II. 

THE    MUSCLES — THEfR  NECESSITY,    STRUCTURE,    FORMATION,    AND 
EXERCISE. 

136-  Necessity,  structure,  and  office. — 137.  The  power  of  the  mus- 
cular system.— 138.  The  importance  of  exercise. — 139.  Pleasure 


Vl  CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

of  exercise  and  labor. — 140.  Most  great  men  laboitrd  hard  in 
youth. — 141.  The  anti-working  doctrine  and  practice. — 142.  The 
dignity  of  labor,  and  rendering  it  agreeable. — 143.  The  amount 
of  exercise  required. — 144.  Dancing"  as  exercise. — 145.  Exercise 
doubly  requisite  for  the  young. — 146.  Children  and  youth  should 
labor,  but  not  to  excess. — 147.  Early  schooling  especially  injurious. 

223—25? 

CHAPTER  V. 

THE    BRAIN    AND   NERVOUS    SYSTEM. 

SECTION  I. 
POSITION,  FUNCTION,  AND  STRUCTURE  OF  THE  BRAIN. 

148.  Requisition  for  some  mental  function  and  organ. — 149.  The  lo- 
cation and  structure  of  the  brain.- — 150.  The  cerebellum  and  its 
functions. — 151.  Consciousness — or  the  seat  of  the  soul.  -  250 — 257 

SECTION  II. 

THE  NERVOUS  SYSTEM. 

152.  Structure.  — 153.  The  function  of  the  nerves.  — 154.  Import- 
ance of  sensation.  — 155.  Importance  of  healthy  nerves.  — 156. 
Effects  of  diseased  nerves  upon  the  mind. — 157.  How  to  keep  the 
nervous  system  in  health.  -  257 — 26C 

/ 

CHAPTER  VI. 

THE    REMEDY    OF    DISEASES. 
SECTION  I. 

OBSERVANCE    OF    THE    LAWS    OF    HEALTH    MORE  EFFECTUAL  RESTO 
RATIVES  THAN  MEDICINES. 

158.  Existence,  definition,  and  curability  of  disease. — 159.  Vegeta- 
_  ble  and  mineral  medicines. — 160.  The  use  of  poisons,  calomel, 
•   and  depletions. — 161.   A  medicinal  diet  better  than  concentrated 
medicines.     -------    267 — 272 

SECTION  II. 

BALANCE    OR   PROPORTION    AMONG    THE    FUNCTIONS   ESSENTIAL    TO 
HEALTH ITS  PRESERVATION  AND  RESTORATION. 

162.  Proportion  a  law  of  nature. — 163.  Growing  youth  an  exception 
to  this  law. — 164.  Excess  of  carbon  a  prolific  cause  of  disease. 
— 165.  Exhaustion  as  inviting  disease. — 166.  Restoration  of  this 
proportion. — 167.  Who  require  muscular  action,  and  how  to  pro- 
mote it. — 168.  The  promotion  of  digestion. — 169.  Constipation — 
its  evils  and  remedy. — 170.  The  drink  of  dyspeptics — its  kinds, 
time,  and  quantity. — 171.  Palpitation  of  the  heart,  and  the  promo- 
tion of  circulation. — 172.  Consumption — its  cause  and  cure. — 173. 
Preventives  of  consumption. — 174.  The  children  of  consumptive 
parents- — 175.  The  cure  of  disordered  nerves. — 176.  Preventives 
of  Insanity. — 177.  The  water  cure. — 178.  Conclusion.  •  273—312 


PHYSIOLOGY,  ANIMAL  AND  MENTAL. 


CHAPTER  I. 

HEALTH  :     ITS    VALUE    AND    LAWS. 


SECTION  I. 

HAPPINESS   AND    SUFFERING,    AND    THEIR    CONDITIONS. 
1.       HAPPINESS    CONSTITUTIONAL. 

luppiNESS  is  the  constitutional  and  only  legitimate  product 
of  every  organ  of  the  body,  every  faculty  of  the  mind,  every 
element  of  our  being.  To  what  else  are  all  our  bones,  joints, 
and  muscles  adapted,  both  in  their  functions  themselves,  and  in 
all  that  labor  and  locomotion  which  they  were  devised  to  accom- 
plish ?  What  but  exquisite  enjoyment  is  the  constitutional  pro- 
duct,  both  of  the  mere  act  of  seeing,  and  of  that  ceaseless  round 
of  pleasure  and  fund  of  information,  as  well  as  range  of  material 
for  thought,  feeling,  and  happiness,  furnished  thereby  ?  Plea- 
sure in  quaffing  luxuriantly  the  fresh  air  of  heaven,  and  then 
in  expending  the  vitality  thus  obtained,  is  the  only  natural 
function  of  respiration.  For  what  was  the  stomach  created, 
but  to  give  us  pleasure  both  in  eating  and  in  all  its  constitu- 
tional effects  ?  And  for  what  were  brain  and  nerve  created, 
but  expressly  to  furnish  us  an  inexhaustible  range  of  intel- 
lectual and  moral  enjoyment  ?  And  thus  of  every  other  physi- 
cal organ  and  function. 

Each  mental  faculty  singly,  and  all  combined,  have  the 
same  constitutional  adaptation  and  object.  Benevolence  was 
created  to  bless  the  needy,  pour  the  oil  of  consolation  into  the 
wounded  soul,  avoid  causing  pain,  and  adorn  human  nature, 
as  well  as  to  render  the  giver  himself  also  happy  ;  it  being  still 
more  blessed  to  give  than  to  receive.  Parental  love  is  adapted 
both  to  render  parents  themselves  happy  in  providing  for,  and 
educating  darling  and  dependant  infancy  and  lovely  childhood, 


20  PHYSIOLOGY,    ANIMAL   AND   MENTAL. 

md  children  also  happy  in  receiving  the  bounties  thus  lavishly 
bestowed  by  parental  love.  Ideality,  exercised  in  harmony 
with  its  primitive  function,  enjoys  a  perpetual  feast  in  contem- 
plating the  beautiful  and  perfect  in  nature,  as  well  as  in  refin- 
ing the  manners  and  purifying  the  feelings  of  its  possessor,  and 
elevating  and  gracing  his  entire  nature  and  conduct.  Ac- 
quisitiveness was  designed  to  give  pleasure  both  in  acquiring 
property  and  the  necessaries  and  comforts  of  life,  as  well  as 
in  providing  Appetite  with  food  ;  Benevolence  with  the  means 
of  doing  good,  Cautiousness  with  the  requisites  'for  shelter 
arid  safety,  the  Social  Affections  with  family  comforts,  In- 
habitiveness  with  a  home,  Intellect  with  books  and  the 
•neans  of  prosecuting  scientific  researches,  and  all  the  faculties 
respectively  with  the  means  of  their  gratification.  Appetite, 
besides  yielding  much  gustatory  pleasure,  nourishes  body  and 
brain,  and  thereby  enables  them  to  perform  and  enjoy  the 
various  functions  of  our  nature.  Causality  experiences  a 
rich  harvest  of  happiness  in  studying  the  laws  and  operations 
of  nature,  adapting  ways  and  means  to  ends,  and  thereby 
attaining  pleasure  only.  Language,  normally  exercised, 
affords  a  world  of  pleasure  in  the  mere  act  of  talking,  besides 
that  exhaustless  source  of  happiness  experienced  in  the  inter- 
change of  knowledge,  ideas,  motives,  feelings,  etc.,  as  well  as 
in  reading,  hearing  sermons,  lectures,  and  the  like,  and  in 
communing  with  one  another  in  ways  innumerable.  How 
vast  an  amount  of  happiness  is  memory  capable  of  conferring 
on  man  ?  How  exalted  the  enjoyment  we  can  experience  in 
worshipping  God,  and  in  all  those  holy  emotions  and  purifying 
influences  prayer  is  adapted  to  diffuse  throughout  the  soul ! 
And  thus  of  Friendship,  Connubial  love,  Ambition,  Persever- 
ance, 'Hope,  Moral  feeling,  and  every  other  faculty  of  the  hu- 
man mind  !  Does  the  needle  point  to  its  pole  more  universally 
than  every  physical  organ,  every  mental  faculty,  every  ele- 
ment and  function  of  man,  points  to  HAPPINESS — ALL  happiness, 
pure,  unalloyed,  AND  NOTHING  ELSE — as  its  only  constitutional 
product  ?  What  else  is  of  any  conceivable  value  to  him  ? 
For  what  else  was  he  created  ?  Need  so  plain  a  law  of  na- 
ture be  farther  argued  or  elucidated  ? 


PAIN    EXISTS,    THOUGH    UNNECESSARY.  21 

2.       AMOUNT    OP    HAPPINESS    ATTAINABLE. 

And  the  AMOUNT  of  happiness  of  which  our  natures  are  sus- 
ceptible is  incalculably  great — a  thousand  fold  greater,  doubt- 
less,  than  the  happiest  of  mortals  has  ever  yet  enjoyed,  and 
almost  infinitely  greater  than  the  generality  of  mortals  now 
experience.  We  little  realize  how  inexpressibly  happy  it  is 
by  nature  possibly  for  us  all  to  become.  Our  Creator  has 
done  all  that  even  a  GOD  could  do  to  promote  this  one  normal 
end  of  life — this  only  desideratum  of  our  being.  In  what  a 
perfect  paradise  does  man's  primitive  constitution  place  him ! 
Oh  !  if  he  would  exercise  his  powers  in  accordance  with  their 
original -constitution,  how  perfectly  holy  and  happy  would  he 
thereby  become ! 

3.       PAIN    EXISTS. 

And  yet  our  world  is  full  of  suffering  and  wo  !  Pandora's 
box,  filled  with  all  manner  of  diseases  and  miseries,  has  been 
opened  upon  man !  He  literally  groans  in  agony  !  Poverty, 
wretchedness,  loathsome  and  distressing  sickness,  the  heart- 
rending decease  of  friends,  children,  and  companions,  and  even 
premature  death  itself,  tearing  its  victims  from  life  and  all  its 
pleasures,  torment  most  mankind  !  Millions  suffer  beyond 
description,  and  millions  of  millions  are  or  have  been  tortured 
into  the  wish  that  they  had  never  been  born,  or  that  death, 
with  all  its  horrors,  would  hasten  to  their  relief;  while  most 
consider  our  world — so  perfectly  adapted  to  promote  human 
happiness — a  path  of  thorns,  and  life  itself  a  lingering,  living 
DEATH  ! 

4.       PAIN     NOT     NECESSARY. 

Yet  none  of  this  suffering  forms  any  NECESSARY  part  of  any 
constitutional  arrangement  or  function  of  our  nature.  Teeth 
are  created  and  adapted  to  masticate  food,  not  to  ache ;  nor 
need  they  ever.  The  head  was  not  made  to  ache,  nor  the 
stomach  to  occasion  griping  pains,  nor  in  any  way  to  distress 
us.  Nor  are  the  lungs  adapted  to  torture  us  while  they  waste 
away  in  lingering  consumption,  blasting  all  our  hopes  and 


22  PHYSIOLOGY,    ANIMAL    AND   MENTAL. 

happiness.  Neither  malignant  fevers,  nor  distressing  rheu- 
matism, nor  torturing  gout,  nor  loathsome,  life-eating  cancers, 
nor  any  other  kind  or  degree  of  disease  or  suffering  form  any 
part  of  man's  original  constitution,  nor  of  nature's  ordinances, 
but  all  are  utterly  repugnant  to  both. 

So  of  the  mental  faculties.  Was  Benevolence  created  to 
torment  us  with  the  sight  of  pain  which  cannot  be  relieved  ? 
Or  Combativeness  to  brawl,  quarrel,  and  fight  ?  Or  Destruct- 
iveness  to  devastate  whole  nations  with  wo  and  carnage, 
making  loving  wives  lonely  widows,  and  happy  children  deso- 
late orphans,  by  the  MILLION,  besides  all  the  horrors  of  the  battle 
field  itself?  Or  Appetite  to  gormandize  till  it  offers  up  all 
that  is  virtuous  and  happy  at  the  shrine  of  beastly  gluttony 
and  drunkenness  ?  Or  Approbativeness  to  pinch  the  feet  of 
the  suffering  Chinese,  or  flatten  the  head  of  the  savage  Indian, 
or  deform  the  waists  of  simple  would-be  beauties  ?  Or  Self. 
Esteem  to  wade  through  seas  of  blood  to  thrones  of  despotism  ? 
Or  Veneration  to  create  all  the  abominations  of  Paganism,  or 
the  bigotry  of  Christendom  1  Or  Constructiveness  to  make 
implements  of  torture  and  death  ?  Or  Acquisitiveness  to  cheat 
and  rob  ?  Or  Causality  to  plot  mischief  and  devise  evil  ?  Or 
Adhesiveness  to  mourn  in  hopeless  grief  the  loss  of  near  and 
dear  friends  ?  Or  Parental  Love  to  torture  us  with  inexpressi- 
ble anguish  by  the  death  of  a  dearly  beloved  child,  or  perhaps 
entire  groups  of  beautiful  and  happy  sons  and  daughters '? 
Or  Connubial  Love  to  weep  disconsolate  and  distracted  at  the 
grave  of  a  dearly  beloved  wife,  or  devoted  husband — perhaps, 
too,  after  every  means  of  support  has  been  exhausted,  every 
child  buried,  every  earthly  hope  blasted,  and  while  torturing 
diseasejs  preying  upon  life  itself,  and  opening  the  yawning  grave 
at  our  feet  ?  No,  NEVER  !  Cold  and  heat  are  not  more  unlike 
than  these  results  are  contrary  to  all  of  nature's  adaptations. 
Nor  is  there  a  single  physical  organ,  or  mental  faculty,  or 
human  function  whose  normal  product  is  pain,  or  any  thing 
but  pleasure.  Any  other  doctrine  contradicts  universal  fact, 
.  attests  the  ignorance  of  it*  advocate,  and  would  fain  libel 
Infinite  Goodness ! 


SUPREMACY    CF    CAUSATION.  23 

5.      OUR   WORLD   GOVERNED   BY    INFLEXIBLE    CAUSATION. 

What,  then,  has  caused  all  this  wide-spread  misery  ?  Eve's 
eating  the  forbidden  fruit  ?  But  that  affects  all  human  beings 
alike  ;  so  that,  for  all  ITS  influences,  all  COULD  be  as  happy  as 
any  one  ever  has  been  or  ever  will  be.  Will  not  the  recipi- 
ents of  millennial  bounty  be  incalculably  and  perfectly  happy  ? 
Yet  they  will  bear  precisely  the  same  constitutional  relation 
to  Adam  with  the  most  sinful  and  miserable  of  mortals.  What, 
then,  is  its  cause  ? 

Hear  nature's  answer.  "  All  enjoyment,  all  suffering  is 
CAUSED."  The  sentient  world,  in  common  with  the  physical, 
is  governed  by  LAW,  the  violation  of  which  causes  pain,  and  its 
obedience  pleasure.  CAUSE  AND  EFFECT  govern  all  nature — 
her  pains  and  pleasures  included.  All  that  occurs  or  is,  is 
CAUSED,  nor  can  any  thing  whatever  occur  or  exist,  without 
being  governed  throughout  by  INFLEXIBLE  CAUSATION.  But 
for  this  all  would  be  chance  and  chaos ;  now  all  is  CERTAIN 
SEQUENCE.  But  for  this  every  thing  would  happen,  and  dole- 
ful uncertainty  brood  darkly  over  all  things ;  now  all  is  CER- 
TAINTY. These  laws  reign  supreme,  and  substitute  perfect 
order  for  complete  confusion.  From  them  there  is  no  appeal, 
and  to  them  no  exception.  Nor  is  their  action  ever  uncertain. 
Given  causes  always  produce  specific  effects,  and  their  own 
appropriate  effects  only  ;  while  like  causes  invariably  generate 
like  effects.  All,  therefore,  that  we  feel,  enjoy,  and  suffer,  is 
CAUSED — is  the  absolutely  NECESSARY  product  of  its  own  SPE- 
CIFIC cause,  and  of  that  only.  Under  similar  circumstances 
nothing  else  could  possibly  have  occurred  ;  so  that  all  uncer- 
tainty is  for  ever  precluded. 

6.       ALL    PAIN    THE    CONSEQUENCE    OF   VIOLATED    LAW. 

Nor  are  these  laws  dead  letters,  nor  passive  non-entities,  nor 
destitute  of  divine  sanction ;  but  they  are  clothed  with  TWO- 
FOLD authority  ;  first  in  the  happiness  consequent  upon  their 
obedience,  and  in  the  pain  caused  by  their  infraction.  Indeed, 
happiness  is  but  the  legitimate  and  ONLY  effect  of  their  observ- 
ance, and  pain  of  their  violation.  Unaccompanied  by  these 
pleasurable  and  painful  consequences,  they  would  be  powei. 


24  PHYSIOLOGY,    ANIMAL    AND    MENTAL,       " 

less,  and  therefore  useless.  Every  law  of  our  being  is  ex- 
pressly  instituted  and  adapted  to  secure  human  happiness — 
this  "  chief  end  of  man's  creation,"  the  only  commodity  of  any 
value  to  him1 — and  to  prevent  suffering ;  because  unless  pain 
resulted  from  their  infraction,  half  their  present  sanction  would 
have  been  wanting ;  whereas  now,  not  only  do  the  pleasures 
experienced  in  their  observance  sweetly  allure  us  onward  in 
the  same  delightful  path,  but  the  direful  penalties  consequent 
on  their  violation  urge,  even  COMPEL  us,  and  with  a  PRACTICAL 
power  greater  than  any  other  de-vice  could  possibly  wield,  to 
shun  this  suffering  by  complying  with  their  requirements. 
Pain  is  constitutionally  abhorrent  to  man — is  the  only  ground- 
work of  all  dislike.  By  an  arrangement  living  back  in  his 
very  nature,  man  instinctively  and  universally  shrinks  from  it 
as  from  poison,  as  well  as  avoids  its  cause.  Nor  does  he  avoid 
any  thing  but  what  occasions  him  pain,  or  for  any  other  reason, 
and  dislikes  all  things  in  PROPORTION  to  the  pain  they  give  him, 
as  well  as  wholly  because  of  such  pain.  Hence,  he  instinctively 
avoids  violating  law  because  such  violation  occasions  that  suf- 
fering which  he  dreads  ;  and  seeks  in  obedience  that  pleasure 
to  which  he  is  constitutionally  so  powerfully  attracted.  Un- 
less pain  existed,  sentinel-like,  to  watch  and  warn  us  against 
violating  law,  we  should  be  perpetually  liable  to  burn,  or  bruise, 
or  freeze  ourselves  to  death,  many  times  over,  if  that  were  pos- 
sible, as  well  as  to  mutilate  and  destroy  ourselves  in  countless 
ways  which  pain  now  prevents.  This  same  principle  governs 
equally  the  laws  of  mind,  and  for  the  same  purpose;  namely, 
to  secure  their  observance  also.  Indeed,  law  without  pain 
would  be  but  mockery — a  rope  of  sand — and  the  greater  and 
more  uniform  the  pleasures  of  obedience,  but  the  more  certain 
and  fearful  the  pain  consequent  on  their  violation,  the  more 
valuable  the  law.  Happiness  is  the  most  persuasive  motive  ta 
goodness,  and  suffering  the  most  powerful  preventive  of  sin, 
which  even  a  GOD  could  invent ;  and  this  double  invention  of 
rewards  AND  punishments — the  former  sweetly  enticing  obedi- 
ence and  the  latter  sternly  ENFORCING  it — is  as  perfectly  adapt- 
ed to  secure  man's  highest  good  as  Infinite  Wisdom  could 
Devise  and  Infinite  Benevolence  execute  ! 


VJIEJSK    LAWS    SELF-ACTING.  <& 

f.       THESE    REWARDS    AND    PENALTIES    SELF-ACTING. 

That  same  Wisdom  which  devised  these  laws  has  also 
affixed  a  contrivance  by  which  they  are  their  own  executors. 
They  are  SELF-ACTING — necessarily  inducing,  in  the  very  na- 
ture of  things,  their  appropriate  rewards  and  penalties.  In 
the  very  ACT  of  obedience  consists  its  pleasures,  while  in  and 
by  the  very  transgression  itself,  consists  its  penalty.  To  obey 
any  law  is  to  secure  its  legitimate  blessings  ;  to  transgress  it 
is  to  insure  its  consequent  sufferings.  No  escape,  no  evasion 
of  either  can  possibly  occur  throughout  God's  vast  dominions. 
Obedience  and  its  consequent  happiness  are  linked  inseparably 
together ;  while  sin  and  suffering  go  hand  in  hand  throughout 
the  universe  !  Neither  can  ever  be  separated  from  the  other ! 

Be  it,  then,  remembered  by  every  human  being,  that  "  afflic- 
tion cometh  not  forth  of  the  dust,"  nor  doth  pleasure  "  spring 
out  of  the  ground,"  but  that  ALL  suffering  is  caused— is  the 
constitutional  and  inevitable  CONSEQUENCE  of  violating  law,  and 
that  all  enjoyment  flows  naturally  and  necessarily  from  obedi- 
ence. Nor  is  it  possible,  in  the  very  nature  of  things,  to  obey 
or  violate  any  law  whatever,  without  inducing  these  results; 
nor  of  experiencing  these  results  except  in  and  by  such  viola- 
tion. No  pain,  uncaused,  was  ever  sent  by  God,  nor  any 
blessing  ever  conferred  except  in  conformity  with  these  unal- 
terable institutes  of  nature.  Even  judgments  and  mercies 
themselves  are  brought  about  by  causation.  Hence,  happi- 
ness is  in  as  exact  proportion  to  obedience,  and  sinfulness  to 
suffering,  as  the  God  of  Heaven  can  mete  them  out. 

8.       THESE    LAWS    COGNIZABLE. 

Nor  are  these  laws  a  sealed  book  to  man,  nor  hidden  in 
labyrinthian  mazes,  ready  to  spring  upon  him  like  serpents  from 
the  grass  or  tigers  from  their  lairs.  This  would  render  them 
useless  as  well  as  "  charge  God  foolishly."  No  mist,  no  un- 
certainty beclouds  any  of  them.  They  are  open,  palpable, 
and  lighted  up  by  the  full  blaze  of  both  philosophy  and  per- 
petual  experience.  Nor  need  any  of  them  ever  be  misappre- 
hended. Those  who  cannot  discern  them,  not  as  in  a  glass, 
darkly,  but  clearly  and  fully,  as  in  the  noon-day  sun,  are  either 
3 


26  PHYSIOLOGY,    ANIMAL   AND   MENTAL. 

blinded  or  stupid.     Such  cognizance  is  even  THRUST  contin- 
ually upon  us. 

9.      MAN    CAN    APPLY    THEM. 

To  this  capability  of  understanding  them  God  has  graciously 
superadded  the  power  of  APPLYING  them.  Man  can  REACH 
them — can  adapt  means  to  ends ;  that  is,  control  effects  by 
applying  causation  so  as  to  bring  about  desired  ends.  He  is, 
moreover,  endowed  with  that  power  of  choice  or  will  which 
enables  him  to  obey  or  violate  at  pleasure,  and  thus  to  render 
himself  good  or  bad,  and  therefore  happy  or  miserable',  accord, 
ing  as  he  may  determine.  He  is  thus  capacitated,  by  obey- 
ing  these  laws,  to  apply  them  to  the  promotion  of  his  own 
happiness  and  the  well- being  of  his  fellow  men ;  or,  by  igno- 
rantly  and  wickedly  breaking  them,  to  occasion  an  incalcula- 
ble amount  of  suffering,  both  to  himself  and  his  fellow  men. 
In  general,  those  suffer  most  who  have  sinned  most,  and  BE- 
CAUSE of  their  sin ;  while  those  who  are  the  most  happy  are 
so  because  the  most  OBEDIENT— our  enjoyments  and  sufferings 
being  the  thermometers  of  our  righteousness  and  sinfulness. 
Though  some  inherit  painful  diseases  and  vicious  predisposi- 
tions from  parents,  and  thus  suffer  for  sins  not  their  own,  and 
though  our  inter-relations  with  our  fellow  men  often  cause  us 
to  suffer  for  their  sins,  yet,  in  the  main,  we  obey  and  enjoy,  or 
sin  and  suffer,  FOR  OURSELVES,  and  reap  the  consequences  of 
our  OWN  conduct.  Hence,  by  avoiding  all  sin  we  can  escape 
all  suffering,  and  in  that  proportion.  So  if  we  obey  all  the 
laws  of  our  being,  we  shall  become  as  PERFECTLY  happy  as  it 
is  possible  for  human  nature  to  become  or  endure — every  de- 
partment of  our  entire  being  literally  overflowing  with  unal- 
loyed' bliss. 

10.       HAPPINESS    AND     SUFFERING    ANALOGOUS     TO    THE    LAW    OBEYED    OR 


All  enjoyment  also  flows  in  the  direct  LINE  of  that  obedience 
which  caused  it,  and  all  suffering  follows  directly  in  the  WAKE 
of  its  sin.  Each  bears  a  close  resemblance  to  its  origin. 
Thus  the  violation  of  the  law  of  appetite  inflicts  a  given  kind 


UNDERSTANDING   THESE    LAWS.  27 

of  suffering,  which  is  analogous  to  the  law  violated  ;  namely, 
it  disorders  the  stomach,  corrupts  the  blood,  and  causes  disease 
and  suffering  throughout  this  whole  department  of  our  nature  ; 
but  those  who  violate  the  law  of  chastity  experience  an  entirely 
different  kind  of  pain,  occurring  in  the  social  department  of 
their  nature  and  its  dependancies ;  yet  if,  meanwhile,  they 
obey  the  laws  of  appetite,  they  enjoy  the  pleasures  conferred 
thereby.  Whoever  violates  the  laws  of  Acquisitiveness,  by 
hoarding  immense  wealth,  or  obtaining  money  by  fraud,  gam- 
bling, or  any  dishonest  means,  invariably  suffers  on  its  account. 
What  gambler  or  robber  ever  enjoyed  his  booty  ?  HONESTY 
alone  is  policy.  Getting  money  dishonestly  occasions  its  per- 
nicious expenditure,  while  earning  it  secures  its  judicious  use. 
Those  even  who  acquire  it  too  easily  and  rapidly,  generally 
live  luxuriously,  and  thus  suffer  in  and  by  the  very  money 
thus  obtained  without  its  being  earned.  Yet  if  such  obey  the. 
laws  of  hef*lth,  or  Ideality,  or  any  other  laws,  they  will  enjoy 
the  benefits  of  whatever  laws  they  obey. 

This  analogy  of  all  enjoyment  and  suffering  to  the  law 
obeyed  or  broken,  renders  it  easy  to  trace  our  respective  pains 
and  pleasures — mental  and  physical,  public  and  private,  col- 
lective and  individual — directly  and  CERTAINLY  to  their  causes ; 
that  is,  to  the  laws  obeyed  and  broken.  This  great  PRACTICAL 
truth  teaches  all  mankind  both  the  CAUSES  AND  REMEDIES  of 
every  evil  experienced  and  suffering  endured,  as  well  as  how 
to  obviate  them,  and  also  just  what  promotes  happiness  that  we 
may  "  seek  it  yet  again." 

11.       IMPORTANCE    OP    UNDERSTANDING    THESE    LAWS. 

By  as  much,  then,  as  we  value  happiness  and  dread  misery, 
let  us  all  apply  ourselves  most  diligently  and  perseveringly  tc 
the  STUDY  of  these  laws,  as  the  first  step  towards  their  obedi- 
ence. Though  we  may  indeed  light  upon  such  observance 
without  understanding  them,  and  should  if  our  natures  were 
unperverted,  yet  how  much  better  with  ?  Ignorance  is  the 
evil,  knowledge  the  remedy.  To  make  men  better,  show  them 
the  CONSEQUENCES  of  both  obedience  and  transgression.  These 
t  reat  PRACTICAL  motives  once  realized,  take  so  FEELING  a  hold 


28  PHYSIOLOGY,    ANIMAL   AND   MENTAL. 

of  all  mankind  as  literally  to  compel  obedience 7,  and  are  more 
efficacious  than  all  others  combined.  Ignorance  of  conse- 
quences is  the  great  parent  of  most  of  man's  sufferings,  and  a 
knowledge  of  them  the  first,  second,  and  third  all-powerful 
instrumentality  of  restraining  sin.  "  Knowledge  is  power,"  and 
knowledge  of  these  laws,  that  is,  of  the  conditions  of  enjoyment 
and  causes  of  suffering,  is  as  much  more  powerful  for  happi- 
ness than  all  other  species  of  knowledge,  as  it  enforces  these 
laws,  and  shows  us  how  to  gather  in  perpetually  from  the 
prolific  vine  of  our  natures,  those  rich  clusters,  in  all  their 
endless  varieties,  of  the  choicest  delights  of  our  nature,  which 
a  bountiful  God  has  adapted  it  to  yield,  as  well  as  escape  that 
wretchedness  which  floods  our  world!  As  happiness  is  the 
"  chief  end  of  man,"  that  species  of  knowledge  is  the  most 
important  which  the  most  effectually  furthers  this  end,  the 
happiness  it  is  capable  of  conferring  being  its  only  measure  of 
value.  Now  since  a  knowledge  of  the  laws  of  our  being  or 
conditions  of  happiness,  is  incalculably  more  PROMOTIVE  of  this 
happiness  than  that  of  astronomy,  natural-philosophy,  lan- 
guages, etc.,  it  is  therefore  proportionally  the  more  valuable. 

Truly, 

"  Man's  greatest  knowledge  is  HIMSELF  to  know." 

He  is  most  wise  who  best  knows  how  to  render  himself  happy, 
yet  grossly  ignorant  are  all  those  who  do  not,  however  learned 
in  physics,  Grecian  and  Latin  ore,  politics,  literature,  and 
every  other  species  of  knowledge.  That  study,  too,  is  greatest 
which  unfolds  the  greatest  variety,  and  the  highest  order  of 
these  laws,  and  can  be  turned  to  the  best  practical  account, 
in  both  of  which  the  study  of  HUMANITY  exceeds  all  others. 
Man  is  the  epitome  of  the  universe,  and  his  study  is  the  study 
of  the  'greatest  work  of  God  ! 

12.       OBJECT    OF    ALL    EDUCATION. 

To  EXPOUND  THESE  LAWS  and  enforce  their  observance, 
should  therefore  be  the  one  distinctive  end  and  drift  of  all 
education,  domestic,  common,  and  classic.  As  happiness  is 
the  only  "  end  of  man  "  and  acquisition  of  any  value,  all 
education  should  be  directed  to  its  attainment,  nor  is  it  of  any 


PRINCIPLE,    AND    OBJECT    OF    EDUCATION.  29 

possible  use  or  value  farther  than  it  does  this.  Education 
should  then  teach  first  and  mainly  the  NATURE  OF  MAN,  and 
other  studies  only  as  collaterals  till  this  species  of  knowledge 
is  complete.  This  point  is  clear;  yet  how  utterly  foreign  to 
this  object  is  all  education  as  now  conducted !  Pupils  are 
taught  scarcely  any  thing  concerning  themselves,  physically 
or  mentally,  or  how  to  render  themselves  happy,  or  how  to 
avoid  pain.  That  our  educational  system  is  slightly  improving, 
is  admitted,  yet  it  requires  not  to  be  PATCHED  up  or  mended, 
but  to  be  completely  REMODELLED.  We  want  every  thing 
NEW,  not  the  old  revised,  as  we  shall  see  throughout  these 
entire  works.  We  require  an  education  which  shall  TEACH 
NATURE,  especially  HUMAN  nature,  instead  of  books  transmitted 
through  the  dark  ages.  The  school  and  pseudo-scientific 
books  now  taught  are  exceedingly  deficient  as  exponents  of 
nature,  and  omit  our  own  almost  wholly.  Yet  all  school- 
books  should  teach  nature  in  general,  and  human  nature — its 
laws  and  conditions  of  happiness,  in  particular. 

13.       PHYSIOLOGICAL    AND    PHRENOLOGICAL    EDUCATION. 

What  then  are  some  of  the  principal  laws  of  our  being,  by 
understanding  and  obeying  which  we  can  so  effectually  aug- 
ment both  our  own  happiness  and  that  of  our  fellow  men,  as 
well  as  escape  suffering  by  obviating  its  cause  ?  This  event- 
ful inquiry  phrenological  and  physiological  science  answers 
in  the  exposition  they  furnish  of  the  primitive  constitution  of 
man.  Phrenology  expounds  all  the  laws  of'  bur  physical 
constitution,  and  thereby  all  the  conditions  of  life,  health,  and 
animal  enjoyment ;  while  Phrenology  unfolds>all  the  laws  of 
MIND,  to  fulfil  which  constitutes  the  observance  of -all  our  moral 
duties  and  the  consequent  enjoyment.  Both  combined  there- 
fore evolve  all  the  elementary  conditions  of  human  happiness, 
together  with  all  the  prominent  causes  of  human  suffering  and 
woe,  and  all  so  plainly  that  those  that  run  can  read.  Being 
true — and  this  is  taken  for  granted  in  this  series  of  volumes, 
but  fully  proved  elsewhere  —  they  of  course  develop  those 
laws  and  conditions  in  harmony  with  which  GOD  CREATEB 
MAN,  and  therefore  embody  his  entire  nature  with  all  its  laws. 
3* 


30  PHYSIOLOGY,    ANIMAL   AND    MENTAL. 

To  interpret  these  laws  and  their  accompanying  conditions  of 
happiness  sufficiently  to  elucidate  and  enforce  their  obser- 
vance, and  thus  to  promote  human  improvement,  is  the  dis- 
tinctive object  of  this  series  of  volumes.  God  grant  that  it 
may  render  every  reader,  and  through  them  countless  thou- 
sands, the  more  virtuous  and  happy  in  this  life,  and  thereby 
better  fitted  for  that  which  is  to  come* 


SECTION  II. 

RECIPROCATIONS    EXISTING    BETWEEN   THE    BODY  AND   THE    MIND. 
14.       MAN    A    PHYSICAL    AND    MENTAL    BEING. 

IF  man  had  been  created  a  purely  physical  being,  without 
any  mind,  he  could  have  accomplished  nothing,  could  have  en- 
joyed  nothing.  Or  if  he  had  been  created  a  purely  spiritual 
being,  without  a  material  organization,  this  world,  with  all  its 
adaptations  for  promoting  human  happiness* — the  glorious  sky 
over  our  heads  and  the  flower-spangled  lawn  under  our  feet, 
the  life-giving  sun  and  health- inspiring  breeze,  the  rains  and 
dews  of  heaven,  and  all  the  fruits,  bounties,,  and  luxuries  of 
earth — as  far  as  it  concerns  man,  would  have  been  made  in 
vain.  But  he  has  been  created  a  COMPOUND  being,  composed 
of  flesh  and  blood,  on  the  one  hand,  and  of  mind  and  soul  on 
the  other ;  and  wonderful  indeed — the  workmanship  of  GOD — 
is  this  union  of  mind  with  matter,  and  pre-eminently  promo- 
tive  of  human  happiness. 

•       15.       MIND    AN.D    BODY    PERFECTLY    INTER-RELATED,. 

Nor  are  these  respective  natures  strangers  to  each  other. 
Indeed,  they  are  so  closely  inter-related  that  every  action  and 
condition  of  either  exerts  a  perfectly  reciprocal  influence  on 
the  other.  This  vital  truth  is  PRACTICALLY  established  by  the 
perpetual  EXPER.ENCE  of  every  member  of  the  human  family. 
Thus  a  clear,  cold  morning,  produces  directly  opposite  effects 
on  the  mind  by  differently  affecting  the  body.  Fevers  enhance, 


BODY   AND   MIND    INTER-RELATED.  31 

and  often  derange  the  feelings  and  mental  manifestations,  by 
augmenting  the  action  of  the  brain ;  while  hunger,  fatigue, 
debility,  and  the  like,  enfeeble  the  former  by  diminishing  the 
action  of  the  latter.  Dyspepsia  induces  gloom  and  mental  de- 
bility, by  deranging  the  physical  functions — rendering  its  vic- 
tim irritable,  misanthropic,  wretched,  disagreeable,  and  utterty 
unlike  himself.  Physical  inaction  induces  mental  sluggish- 
ness, while  bodily  exercise  quickens  intellectual  action  and 
promotes  happy  feeling.  Excess  and  deficiency  of  food  and 
sleep  affect  the  mind  powerfully,  yet  very  differently.  Expe- 
rience has  taught  many  of  our  best  speakers  to  prepare  their 
minds  for  powerful  effort  by  PHYSICAL  regimen.  Certain  kinds 
of  food  stimulate  some  of  the  propensities,  while  other  kinds 
augment  our  ability  to  think  and  study.  Fasting  promotes 
piety,  but  "  fullness  of  bread"  augments  sinful  desires.  Sick- 
ness enfeebles  the  mind  and  health  strengthens  it.  Cerebral 
inflammation  causes  insanity,  and  its  inaction,  as  in  fainting, 
mental  stupor.  Both  morality  and  talent  are  affected  more  by 
food,  drinks,  physical  habits,  sickness,  health,  etc.,  than  is 
supposed.  When  the  devout  Christian  or  profound  thinker  has 
eaten  to  excess,  or  induced  severe  colds  or  fevers,  or  in  any 
other  way  clogged  or  disordered  his  PHYSICAL  functions,  the 
former  can  no  more  be  "  clothed  with  the  spirit,"  or  "soar  on  the 
wings  of  devotion,"  or  the  latter  bring  his  intellectual  energies 
into  full  and  efficient  action,  than  arrest  the  sim.  Indeed,  most 
of  our  constantly  recurring  transitions  of  thought  and  feeling 
are  caused  by  physiological  changes,  nor  can  the  latter  ever 
occur  without  correspondingly  affecting  the  mentality.  "  A 
sound  mind  in  a  healthy  body"  expresses  this  great  truth,  which 
the  practical  EXPERIENCE  of  alt  mankind  confirms.  In  short,  as 
well  dispute  our  own  .senses  as  controvert  this  doctrine — felt 
perpetually  by  every  human  being — that  both  mind  and  body 
powerfuHy  and  reciprocally  affect  each  other. 

16.   EFFECTED  BY  MEANS  OF  THE  BRAIN THE  ORGAN  OF  THE  MIND. 

This  reciprocity  is  effected  by  means  of  the  BRAIN, — that 
great  focus  of  the  system  which  experiences  all  sensation,  and 
issues  all  mandates.  To  enter  fully  upon  the  proof  of  this 


32  PHYSIOLOGY,    ANIMAL   >..*1D    MENTAL. 

cardinal  doctrine,  that  the  brain  is  the  organ  of  the  mind — the 
great  instrumentality  of  thought  and  feeling — would  be  super- 
fluous, because,  though  it  lies  at  the  very  basis  of  all  the  laws 
and  facts  adduced  in  these  volumes,  yet  it  is  so  generally 
admitted  by  physiologists,  philosophers,  metaphysicians,  and 
mankind  at  large,  that  it  may  properly  be  assumed.  The 
converging  FACTS,  that  several  times  more  blood — always 
abundant  in  any  part  in  proportion  to  the  expenditure  of 
vitality  in  that  part — is  sent  to  the  head  than  to  any  other 
portion  of  the  body ;  that  pressure  upon  the  brain  suspends  the 
action  of  the  mind,  while  pressure  upon  no  other  portion  does 
this  ;  that  the  entire  nervous  system  connects  with  the  brain, 
where  its  functions  are  performed— proved  by  the  destruction 
of  those  functions  consequent  on  severing  any  nerve  in  its 
passage  from  any  part  to  the  brain — that  we  know  of  no  other 
function  which  the  brain  performs,  except  it  be  the  mental,  yet 
that  its  location  and  structure  indicate  its  performance- of  the 
highest  function  of  humanity  ;  and  that  the  size  and  conforma- 
tion of  the  brain  correspond  with  the  characteristics  of  the  mind 
—proved  by  phrenological  science — together  with  many  others 
of  a  kindred  character ;  render  the  inference  that  the  brain 
performs  this  highest  function  of  our  nature  absolutely  certain. 
Every  existing  physical  condition  is  instantly,  accurately,  and 
fully  reported  to  the  brain,  where  it  is  mainly  felt.  The 
various  states  6f  the  brain,  as  of  rest  and  action,  vigor  and 
exhaustion,  health  and  disease,  induce  corresponding  states  of 
the  mind,  over  which  they  exert  a  controlling  influence.  The 
brain  is  therefore  the  organ  of  the  mind — the  great  agent  by 
which  emotion  is  manifested  and  intellect  put  forth. 

The  various  conditions  of  the  brain  and  mind  must  therefore 
be  perfectly  inter-related.  The  requisition  for  this  perfect 
sympathy  between  the  mind  and  its  organ,  is  ABSOLUTE — based 
in  the  very  nature  of  things.  As  no  function  or  product  of 
any  organ  can  ever  take  place  without  the  corresponding 
action  of  that  organ  itself,  so,  the  brain  being  the  organ  of  the 
mind,  no  action  of  the  latter  can  ever  take  place  except  in 
connection  with  and  by  means  of  the  former  j  nor  can  the 
brain  act  w'thout  producing  mentality.  And  since  this  inter- 


BODY,    BRAIN,    AND    MIND    INTER-RELATED.  33 

relation  exists  in  regard  to  their  action,  it  of  course  governs  all 
their  other  relations.  The  universality  and  imperiousness  of 
this  inter-relation  is  what  constitutes  any  organ  an  organ. 
Without  it,  an  organ  is  no  organ,  and  no  organ  can  be  an 
organ.  The  mere  fact  that  the  brain  is  the  organ  of  the  mind, 
pre-supposes  and  requires  this  perfect  reciprocity  of  all  its 
states  and  conditions  with  those  of  the  mind. 

The  brain,  besides  being  the  organ  of  the  mind,  is  also 
perfectly  inter- related  to  the  body  as  a  whole,  and  to  all  its 
parts.  This  is  fully  demonstrated  by  that  perfect  tissue  of 
communication,  shown  by  anatomy  to  exist  between  every 
portion  of  the  body  and  the  brain,  and  confirmed  by  the  per- 
petual experience  of  all  mankind  ;  so  that  the  sympathy  exist- 
ing between  all  parts  of  the  body  and  the  brain,  is  both  perfect 
and  universal.  Its'  states  partake  of  theirs,  and  theirs  of  its; 
so  that  a  common  reciprocity  governs  them  all.  Hence,  since 
the  states  of  the  mind  reciprocate  perfectly  with  those  of  the 
brain,  and  the  brain  with  those  of  the  body,  therefore  the 
several  states  of  the  physiology  and  the  mentality  bear  a  per- 
fect reciprocity  to  each  other.  The  brain  is  perfectly  inter- 
related to  the  body,  and  the  mind  to  the  brain,  and  therefore  the 
mind  to  the  body  through  the  brain  ;  so  that  all  the  conditions 
of  body,  brain,  and  mind  permeate  each  other.  Every  throb  of 
the  physiology  produces  a  corresponding  pulsation  in  both  the 
brain  and  mind ;  every  condition  of  the  brain  is  reciprocated 
throughout  both  the  entire  body  and  mind ;  every  state  of  the 
mentality  induces  a  corresponding  state  in  the  brain  and  body. 
This  inter-relation  of  all  three  to  each  other,  is  both  absolutely 
necessary  and  perfectly  reciprocal.  Since,  then,  all  the  phys- 
ical functions  and  conditions  thus  reciprocally  affect  the  brain, 
and  since  all  the  cerebral  react  thus  powerfully  and  per- 
fectly upon  the  mental,  therefore  all  the  physical  reciprocate 
with  all  the  mental ;  nor  can  the  body  be  affected  in  any  way, 
or  in  the  least,  without  thereby  similarly  affecting  both  brain 
and  mind  j  otherwise  the  brain  cannot  be  the  organ  of  the 
mind,  whereas  we  know  it  is — otherwise,  none  of  the  physical 
conditions  affect  the  mental,  whereas  we  know  they  all  do. 


34  PHYSIOLOGY,    ANIMAL   AND   MENTAL. 

17.       UNIVERSALITY    OF    THIS    RECIPROCITY. 

Not  only  do  tnese  reciprocal  relations  exist,  but,  in  common 
with  universal  nature,  they  are  governed  by  undeviating 
causation  ;  otherwise,  all  the  evils  consequent  on  no  causation 
would  appertain  in  a  pre-eminent  degree  to  this  the  highest 
department  of  nature 5.  Therefore  no  physical  condition  can 
exist  without  affecting  both  brain  and  mind,  nor  can  any 
physiological  changes  occur  without  inducing  similar  changes 
in  the  mentality,  because  nature  never  does  things  by  halves, 
but  whenever  she  sees  best  to  govern  a  PORTION  of  any  class  of 
her  operations  by  certain  laws,  she  always  governs  the  WHOLE 
of  that  class  by  the  same  laws.  Thus,  she  does  not  govern  a 
part  of  the  operations  of  vision  by  the  laws  of  optics,  and  leave 
a  part  ungoverned  by  these  laws,  but  she  governs  ALL  the 
former  by  the  latter.  And  thus  of  every  conceivable  applica- 
tion of  this  principle  of  universality.  That  same  utility — and 
nature  is  all -utility — which  renders  it  best  to  throw  law  over 
a  PART  of  any  class  of  her  operations,  renders  it  equally  ser- 
viceable to  extend  that  same  law  over  this  entire  class. 
Besides,  how  awkwardly  it  would  look  and  work  if  a  pan 
were  thus  governed,  and  a  part  left  wholly  at  random  1  Does 
nature  ever  adopt  this  piecemeal,  patchwork  system  ?  If  so, 
causality  is  a  nullity  and  God  irregular — a  supposition  utterly 
unphilosophical  and  untrue  l5.  These  inter-relations  between 
body  and  brain  and  brain  and  mind,  and  of  course  between 
body  and  mind,  are  therefore  systematic453  and  universal,  so 
that  all  the  states  and  changes  of  either  correspondingly  affect 
the  other.  This  position  is  utterly  incontrovertible  and  abso- 
lutely true — an  ordinance  of  universal  nature.  It  is  estab- 
lished and  effected  by  the  two  palpable  FACTS,  that  the  brain  is 
the  organ  of  the  mind,  and  then  inter-related  to  the  body  ;  both 
of  which  obtain  universally.  To  question  the  latter  is  to  dis- 
pute an  anatomical  fact,  and  to  deny  the  former  is  equivalent 
to  denying  that  the  mind  has  any  connection  with  the  body,  or 
with  matter ;  for  if  this  connection  does  not  take  place  by 
means  of  the  brain,  it  does  not  take  place  at  all,  or  exist.  But 
mind  is  related  to  the  body,  and  affected  by  organic  con- 
ditions16. Therefore  ALL  is  relation.  We  KNOW  and  FEEL 


OPERATING    O*   MIND    THROUGH    BODY.  35 

that  SOME  physical  conditions  similarly  affect  the  mind  :  there- 
fore  every  condition- — every  change  in  every  portion  of  the 
body — similarly  affects  the  brain,  and  thereby  the  mental 
manifestations.  To  excite,  or  invigorate,  or  debilftate,  or  dis- 
ease, or  restore  the  body,  therefore  excites,  or  invigorates,  or 
debilitates,  or  diseases,  or  restores  the  mind  itself;  and  im- 
proving the  latter  also  improves  the  former.  The  two,  and 
all  their  existing  states,  are  as  effectually  and  completely 
interwoven  with  each  other  as  the  warp  and  woof,  and  thus 
interwoven,  constitute  the  warp  and  woof  of  our  terrestrial 
being. 

18.       OPERATING   ON    THE    MIND    THROUGH    THE    BODY. 

This  great  principle  of  mental  and  cerebral  inter-relation 
gives  us  the  KEY  OF  MIND — puts  us  in  possession  of  the  HELM 
OF  THE  MENTALITY — and  shows  us  how  to  control — accelerate, 
retard,  impair,  restore,  augment,  discipline,  or  modify  at  our 
pleasure — any-and  all  the  mental  operations,  by  controlling  the 
physiological  conditions.  It  tells  us  how  we  may  throw  MIND 
into  any  given  state,  namely :  by  throwing  the  body  into  the 
corresponding  state ;  nor  is  it  possible  to  affect  either  in  any 
manner  or  degree  without  thereby  similarly  affecting  the  other 
also,  any  more  than  to  arrest  the  action  of  any  other  law  of 
nature. 

19.       IMPORTANCE    OF    UNDERSTANDING    THESE    RELATIONS. 

This  principle  of  the  reciprocity  between  the  physiology  and 
the  mentality,  is  simple  in  structure  but  all  powerful  in  its 
influence,  and  imbodies  truths  of  the  highest  practical  moment 
to  every  member  of  the  human  family ;  because  it  is  com- 
pletely interwoven  with  every  exercise  of  the  mind,  and  in 
consequence,  with  every  item  of  progression,  personal  and 
public,  in  mental  discipline  and  moral  excellence ;  with  every 
manifestation  of  talents,  every  improvement  in  virtue,  every 
twinge  of  pain,  every  pulsation  of  enjoyment ;  all  of  which  it 
goes  far  to  determine.  In  short,  it  lies  at  the  very  basis  of  the 
intellectual  and  moral  nature  of  man — that  highest  department 
of  his  nature401.  Man  is  indeed  the  greatest  terrestrial  work 


36  PHYSIOLOGY,    ANIMAL    AND    MENTAL. 

of  God  !  But  what  department  of  his  nature  constitutes  its 
crowning  excellence  ?  Which  is  the  king  and  which  the  sub- 
ject ?  For  which  are  all  its  other  departments  created  ?  For 
his  MENTALITY.  Happiness  being  his  legitimate  destiny1, 
which  enjoys  and  suffers  1  MIND.  Was  man  created  mainly 
to  eat,  sleep,  breathe,  labor,  glitter,  and  die  ?  No,  but  to  FEEL 
AND  THINK.  And  what  constitutes  his  identity  and  person- 
ality— his  essence,  HIMSELF  ?  His  dress,  or  even  body  ? 
Neither,  but  his  SOUL.  This  imbodies  the  manhood  of  man. 
All  else  is  extraneous.  Cut  from  him,  if  that  were  possible, 
limb  after  limb  and  organ  after  organ,  till  all  shall  be  removed, 
but  leave  his  mind  entire,  and  he  remains  the  same  being 
still ;  but  his  body,  separated  from  his  immortal  spirit,  is  not 
himself.  Socrates  being  asked  where  they  should  bury  him, 
aptly  replied,  "  Bury  this  body  where  you  like,  but  it  is  not 
me.  My  MIND  is  myself;  that  can  NEVER  be  buried,  but  goes 
to  dwell  with  the  gods."  Our  MENTAL  faculties  constitute 
ourselves* — our  very  being  and  quintessence — flesh  and  blood 
being  our  earthly  habitation  merely. 

The  laws  of  mind  therefore  constitute  the  highest  grade  of 
laws  which  appertain  to  our  being,  and  the  observance  of 
these  laws  therefore  yields  more  enjoyment,  and  that  more 
exalted,  than  obeying  any  other,  while  their  violation  inflicts 
the  highest  kind  and  degree  of  misery  supportable  or  imagi- 
nable. Hence,  since  a  knowledge  of  the  laws  of  our  being  is 
the  most  important  species  of  knowledge  n,  and  since  the  laws 
of  mind  imbody  the  highest  order  of  these  laws,  therefore  the 
study  of  the  LAWS  OF  MIND — of  the  physico-mental  conditions 
of  happiness  and  virtue,  or  of  the  physical  conditions  as  affect- 
ing the  mentality — constitutes  the  highest  of  all  human  investi- 
gations. Since  we  can  control  the  physical  conditions  by  air, 
exercise,  sleep,  diet,  and  general  regimen,  and  thereby  the 
mentality  13,  and  since  such  mental  control  is  the  highest  of  all 
human  attainments  l!),  therefore,  to  ascertain  WHAT  states  of 
the  physiology  will  augment  moral  and  intellectual  action,  and 

*  See  an  explanation  of  Consciousness  in  the  American  Phrenological 
Journal  for  1847. 


IMPOETANCE    OF   PHYSICO-MENTAL   KNOWLEDGE.  37 

what  will  occasion  mental  gloom  and  wretchedness,  or  kindle 
sinful  propensity,  not  only  constitutes  the  highest  order  of  know, 
ledge,  but  also  imparts  the  highest  order  of  power.  "  Know- 
ledge is  power,"  but  no  other  knowledge  is  equally  power  to 

ENHANCE  THE  MORAL  VIRTUES  AND   INTELLECTUAL  CAPABILITIES, 

.as  well  as  to  avoid  temptations  to  sin.  No  charioteer  can 
manage  his  well-trained  steed  as  easily  or  effectually  as  a  full 
knowledge  of  these  physico-mental  relations  will  enable  us  to 
control — augment,  restrain,  direct — our  states  of  mind  and 
feeling.  By  its  application,  we  can  enhance  cerebral  effi- 
ciency and  therefore  mental  power  many  hundred  per  cent. ; 
or  proportionably  augment  the  action  of  particular  cerebral 
organs,  and  therefore  of  any  required  talent  or  virtue.  Yet 
who  understands  this  subject  ?  What  treatise,  even  on  Physi- 
ology— that  department  to  which  it  rightly  belongs — even 
attempts  its  elucidation  ?  And  yet  to  unfold  and  enforce  this 
subject,  should  be  the  main  object  of  ALL  physiological  works; 
because  this  imbodies  their  great  utility. 

To  the  exposition  and  application,  therefore,  of  a  principle 
thus  vast  in  its  range  and  vital  in  its  character,  this  series  of 
volumes  is  dedicated.  The  momentous  questions,  WHAT  physi- 
cal conditions  induce  given  mental  manifestations  ?  into  WHAT 
states  shall  we  throw  the  body  in  order  thereby  to  promote 
particular  moral  emotions  and  tendencies,  or  enhance  particu- 
lar intellectual  powers  and  manifestations  ?  it  will  endeavor  to 
answer,  and  thereby  to  put  its  readers  in  possession  of  the  keys 
of  personal  happiness,  and  the  great  lever  with  which  to  move 
mind.  God  grant  to  the  author  a  full  conception  and  faithful 
delineation  of  the  momentous  practical  truths  unfolded  by  this 
principle,  and  to  the  reader  the  power  to  understand,  and  will 
to  apply  them. 

4 


38  PHYSIOLOGY,    ANIMAL   AND   MENTAL. 


SECTION  III. 

HEA.LTH  :     ITS   VALUE,    FEASIBILITY,    AND    DUTY. 
"  The  poor  man's  riches,  the  rich  man's  blessing." 

20.       HEALTH    DEFINED. 

IT  consists  in  the  vigorous  and  normal  or  natural  action  of 
all  our  organs  and  powers ;  while  disease  consists  in  then 
disorder,  and  death  in  their  suspension.  Life  also  consists  in 
the  same  action,  and  both  health  and  life  are  proportionate  to 
its  amount.  Hence,  by  improving  the  former  we  enhance  the 
latter ;  but  in  proportion  as  we  enfeeble  or  disease  these 
functions,  do  we  thereby  diminish  life  and  all  its  pleasures. 
Viewed  in  any  and  every  aspect,  HEALTH  is  LIFE,  AND  LIFE  is 
HEALTH.  The 

21.       VALUE    OF    HEALTH 

Therefore  exceeds  that  of  anything  else ;  because  it  im 
parts  the  greatest  attainable  zest  and  relish  to  life  aiMPah 
its  blessings.  Nor  can  we  even  enjoy  life,  except  by  its 
instrumentality,  and  in  proportion  to  its  vigor.  Without  it, 
what  can  we  do,  or  become,  or  enjoy  ?  Other  things  being 
equal,  our  capabilities  for  accomplishing  and  enjoying  are 
proportionate  to  its  vigor,  and  become  enfeebled  as  it  declines. 
Neither  all  the  attainable  wealth,  nor  honors,  nor  blessings  of 
life  can  render  us  happy  any  farther  than  we  have  health  to 
enjoy  them,  and  their  value  diminishes  in  proportion  as  health 
declines.  When  disease  has  destroyed  appetite,  the  most 
delicious  food  and  fruits  only  nauseate  ;  yet  how  much  a  keen 
appetite,  consequent  on  excellent  health,  relishes  them  ?  Well 
might  the  glutted  epicure  offer  the  beggar-boy  a  guinea  for  his 
morning's  appetite.  The  rich  invalid  is  poor,  because  he 
cannot  enjoy  *his  possessions;  yet  the  healthy  are  therefore 
rich,  because  their  fund  of  life  and  capabilities  of  being  happy, 
are  great.  Those  who  have  always  enjoyed  health,  little 
realize  its.  uses  or  value.  As  we  measure  time  by  its  loss,  so 


VALUE    OF    HEALTH.  39 

we  rarely  estimate  the  blessings  of  health  till  L  declines.  O ! 
I  would  give  rny  all — all  the  WOJLD  if  mine — for  the  re-pos- 
session of  that  health — LIFE — I  have  carelessly  and  wantonly 
squandered,  and  that  without  having  received  any  value  in 
return  for  this  choicest  gift  of  heaven.  Brought  to  the  brink 
of  the  grave — our  last  hour  come — what  would  we  all  give— 
what  NOT  give — for  another  year  of  life,  with  all  its  pleasures  ? 
Astor's  thirty  MILLIONS  would  be  cheap,  because  life  confers 
almost  infinitely  more  happiness — the  only  commodity  of  any 
value  to  man  l — than  all  else  put  together.  Then  what  con- 
summate foolishness  to  trifle  with  health  as  almost  all  now 
do !  Esau's  folly  was  wisdom  in  comparison  with  theirs  who 
carelessly  give  away  a  lifetime  of  vigor  for  one  of  feebleness — 
who  even  barter  life  itself  for  some  momentary  indulgence. 
A  foolish  ambition  breaks  down  the  constitutions  of  a  vast 
number  of  the  young — of  all.  Unwilling  to  be  out-done,  per- 
haps they  work  at  the  top  of  their  strength  as  long  as  they 
can  stand  up,  or  over-heat  themselves,  or,  in  a  single  day  or 
week,  induce  some  complaint  which  debilitates  them  for  life, 
and  hurries  them  into  premature  graves.  An  ambitious  youth, 
just  to  show  how  much  he  could  do,  worked  to  complete 
exhaustion,  and  till  he  lamed  his  side ;  so  that  these  fifteen 
years  he  has  been  an  invalid,  can  do  scarcely  half  the  labor 
he  formerly  did,  and  some  kinds  not  at  all,  besides  working  in 
almost  perpetual  pain.  That  single  day's  work  did  him  vastly 
more  injury  than  any  fortune  could  ever  do  him  good — gave 
him  more  pain  than  any  amount  of  money  could  ever  have 
given  him  pleasure,  because  it  weakened  all  his  capabilities 
and  pleasures,  and  enhanced  all  his  suffering,  FOR  LIFE,  which  it 
will  shorten  many  years.  And  yet  he  received  no  extra  pay  for 
this  destruction  of  health,  but  sacrificed  a  vast  amount  of  hap- 
piness and  even  of  LIFE,  upon  the  altar  of  foolish  pride.  Nor  are 
such  instances,  of  folly — of  the  worst  forms  of  wickedness  even 
— rare.  What  reader  of  thirty,  if  not  of  fifteen,  has  not  injured 
health  forever,  and  shortened  his  days,  by  similar  exposures  or 
imprudences  ?  And  how  few  take  any  pains  to  invigorate 
health  and  prolong  life,  but  how  many  ignorantly  and  wickedly 
squander  BOTH  almost  daily,  and  in  a  great  variety  of  ways  ? 


HEALTH. 


22.  SICKNESS    COSTLY 

Another  motive,  inferior  in  itself,  yet  in  this  dollar-and-cent 
age,  highly  practical  inducement  to  preserve  health,  is  the  PE- 
CUNIARY advantages  it  confers,  and  loss  consequent  on  sick- 
ness.  Health  allows  you  to  be  always  "  on  hand"  for  business, 
from  which  sickness  takes  you,  and  compels  you  to  intrust  its 
management  to  others — always  disastrous — or  suspends  your 
wages,  if  you  labor.  It  also  incurs  heavy  bills  for  doctors, 
nurses,  and  other  incidentals,  and  occasions  a  great  variety  of 
pecuniary  losses.  So,  measurably,  if  any  of  your  family  is 
sick — especially  a  wife.  How  many  readers,  now  poor,  would 
have  been  rich  if  their  families  had  always  been  well  ?  In 
this  country,  those  who,  with  their  families,  are  uniformly 
healthy,  rarely  ever  need  be  poor.  Indeed,  no  stroke  of  pecun- 
iary policy  equals  that  of  PRESERVING  OR  REGAINING  HEALTH. 
Still  more : — 

23.  DISEASE    PAINJUL. 

See  that  sick  child.  How  forlorn  and  wo-stricken  its  looks ! 
Mark  those  rheumatic  or  gouty  subjects ;  every  motion  pain- 
ful, and  most  of  their  sources  of  pleasure  converted  into  worm- 
wood. Behold  that  wretched  victim  of  disease  lying  prostrate 
on  a  sick  bed !  Torn  from  business,  society,  and  all  the  en- 
joyments of  life,  and,  instead,  racked  with  pain ;  the  boiling 
blood  coursing  through  his  veins,  swollen  almost  to  bursting. 
Hear  his  piteous  wail — "  My  head,  O,  my  head  !"  See  those 
eyes  rolling  in  agony.  Open  the  windows  of  his  soul  and  be- 
hold his  struggle  for  life  in  the  midst  of  death !  His  horrid 
dread,  of  death  far  exceeds  the  torturing  pains  of  disease. 
Hark !  hear  him  pant  for  breath.  Witness  that  gurgling  in 
his  throat.  Behold  the  last  agonizing  struggle  between  life 
and  death,  and  that  final  giving  up  of  the  ghost !  What  is 
more  dreadful  than  sickness  ?  What  horror  of  horrors  at  all 
compares  with  that  most  awful  scene  experienced  on  earth- 
premature  death  ? — from  which  may  God  deliver  us.  Rather 
let  us  all  strive  to  deliver  OURSELVES — for  no  one  ever  dies  till 
he  has  either  so  far  impaired  his  health  as  to  have  exhausted 


DISEASE    PAINFUL.  41 

life,  or  else  till  he  is  worn  out,  and  dies  a  natural,  and  there- 
fore  a  pleasurable  death.  Be  it  remembered  by  all,  that  no 
human  being  can  injure  health  at  any  period  of  life,  without 
proportionally  shortening  life — without  being  brought  to  the 
strictest  account  at  its  close,  and  compelled  to  end  it  as  much 
sooner  than  "he  otherwise  would,  as  he  has  injured  his  health 
during  his  whole  lifetime.  Health — life20 — is  a  sum  of  money 
in  bank,  the  interest  of  which,  economically  used,  will  support 
you.  But  you  spend  foolishly,  and  draw  on  the  principal. 
This  diminishes  the  income,  and  you  draw  the  oftenerand  the 
larger  drafts,  till  you  exhaust  it  and  become  bankrupt.  As 
every  draft  drawn  must  be  reckoned  in  that  final  settlement 
which  every  draft  hastens,  and  as  the  faster  you  draw  the 
sooner  you  exhaust  it,  so  every  cold  or  rheumatic  affection  in- 
duced, every  instance  of  over-eating,  over- working,  and  strain- 
ing, every  imprudence — -whatever  injures  health — is  a  draft 
on  life  which  death  cashes  and  charges  at  a  thousand  per 
cent,  interest ;  and  when  you  have  drawn  out  your  fund  of  life 
— but  never  till  then — he  summons  you  to  your  final  account, 
and  sends  you  to  your  grave.  Thus  every  abuse  of  health 
while  you  live,  enfeebles  your  powers  for  the  remainder  of 
your  life,  and  hastens  death  !  Ho,  youth  !  ho,  all !  be  entreated 
to  consider  the  infinite  value  of  health — of  life — and  the  pro- 
portionate importance  of  its  preservation  and  augmentation  ! 
Weighed  in  the  scale  with  health,  millions  are  trash,  and  all 
else  is  dross  without  it.  Gain  whatever  you  may  by  impair, 
ing  health,  you  become  an  infinite  loser;  but  lose  what  you 
may  in  its  preservation  or  restoration,  you  gain  more  than 
to  acquire  fortunes,  and  even  crowns  and  worlds !  Be  your 
aims  what  they  may,  if  you  would  succeed,  preserve  HEALTH 

FIRST. 

To  get  rich,  PRESERVE  HEALTH. 
To  enjoy  animal  life,  PRESERVE  HEALTH. 
To  do  good,  PRESERVE  HEALTH  ;  for  what  good  can  you  do 
when  sick  or  dead  ? 

To  acquire  knowledge.  PRESERVE  HEALTH. 

To  attain  any  kind  of  eminence  or  greatness,  PRESERVE 

HEALTH. 

>       4* 


42  HEALTH. 

To  secure  any  or  all  the  legitimate  ends  of  life,  physical, 
intellectual,  or  moral,  PEESERVE  HEALTH. 

Let  then  the  PRESERVATION  of  health  be  the  great  concern — 
the  PARAMOUNT  BUSINESS — of  life,  as  it  is  the  perfection  of 
wisdom  and  the  great  instrumentality  of  enjoyment. 

24.       S1CKNE53    AND    DEATH    NOT    PROVIDENTIAL,  BUT    GOVERNED    BY    LAW 

"  O  !  but,"  says  one,  "  health  and  sickness,  life  and  death, 
are  wise  but  mysterious  dispensations  of  PROVIDENCE.  '  The 
LORD  killeth  and  maketh  alive ;  HE  bringeth  down  to  the 
grave  and  bringeth  up.'  Our  days  are  all  numbered,  so  that 
we  MUST  die  at  our  appointed  time."  Do  we  live  in  a  world  of 
law,  or  of  chance567  ?  Does  ev^ry  effect  have  its  cause,  and 
every  cau^e  its  effect,  or  do  the  most  important  of  all  effects 
occur  without  cause612518,  by  "Providential  interposition," 
perhaps  in  the  very  teeth  of  causation  ?  Does  God  violate  his 
own  laws?  Preposterous!  A  doctrine  false  in  fact,  injurious 
in  consequence,  subversive  of  all  causation,  conceived  in  igno- 
rance and  brought  forth  by  bigotry !  Oar  world  is  governed 
throughout  BY  LAW.  All  is  cause  and  effect.  We  SEE,  FEEL, 
AND  KNOW  that  SOME  causes  promote  health,  while  others 
retard  it.  Certain  causes  always  occasion  death,  and  others 
often  avert  it.  If  sickness  and  death  are  providential,  why 
ever  give  medicine  to  remove  the  former,  or  prevent  the  latter  ? 
What !  vainly,  and  impiously  attempt  to  arrest  by  medicine 
the  dispensation  of  an  all-wise  Providence  !  Fear  and  tremble 
lest  He  smite  you  dead,  for  giving  medicine  to  thwart  His 
unchangeable  decree  !  Irony  aside,  sickness  and  death  are  no 
more  providential  than  tne  rising  of  the  sun  or  any  fixed  opera- 
tion of  nature,  but  the  legitimate  and  NECESSARY  EFFECTS  of 
their  procuring  causes ;  nor  do  any  consider  them  practically 
as  providential,  but  all  treat  them  as  effects  in  their  very 
attempts  to  obviate  them  by  removing  their  causes.  All  man- 
kind DO  something — apply  CAUSES  to  the  relief  of  pain  and 
prevention  of  death,  as  spontaneously  as  they  breathe.  What 
stronger  evidence  could  be  required  or  had,  that  all  instinct- 
ively FEEL  AND  KNOW  them  to  be  EFFECTS  governed  by  causa- 
tion 1  Are  deaths  caused  by  poisoning  or  shooting  provi- 


HEALTH    AND    SICKNESS    NOT    IRJVIDENTIAL  43 

dences  ?  Then  all  the  operations  of  nature  are  equally  provi- 
dences. You  may  call  them  CAUSED  providences ;  I  call 
them  effects.  We  often  know  by  what  causes  sickness  and 
death  were  produced,  and  are  all  internally  conscious — the 
highest  order  of  proof — that  they  are  effects,  equally  with  all 
the  operations  of  nature.  To  argue  this  point  is  to  argue 
what  is  self-evident,  and  to  suppose  that  a  single  glow  of  health, 
or  twinge  of  pain  is  not  an  effect,  but  a  providence,  is  sup- 
posing that  this  incalculably  important  department  of  nature  is 
without  the  pale  of  causation  and  law — a  doctrine  utterly 
untenable.  His  Causality  must  be  feeble,  and  mind  weak  or 
unenlightened,  who  entertains  a  doctrine  thus  hostile  to  all 
order  and  to  universal  nature. 

Nor  is  the  doctrine  that  they  are  sometimes  providential, 
and  sometimes  caused  by  violating  the  organic  laws,  less 
irrational  than  to  suppose  the  sun  rises  one  day  in  obedience 
to  the  fixed  laws  of  gravity,  and  another  day  by  '  special  provi- 
dence/ and  wholly  without  means ;  and  thus  of  all  the  other 
fixed  operations  of  nature.  Does  Deity  trifle  thus?  Does  He 
half  do  and  then  undo  ?  Does  He  ever  begin  without  comple- 
ting ?  Does  not  that  same  utility  and  even  constitutional 
necessity  of  things  which  renders  it  best  that  sickness  and 
health,  life  and  death,  should  be  caused  in  PART — as  we  know 
they  are — should  also  be  caused  IN  WHOLE  ?  The  principle 
that  whenever  a  part  of  a  given  class  of  operations,  as  of  seeing, 
motion,  and  the  like,  are  governed  by  causation,  that  entire 
class  is  governed  by  the  same  law,  is  a  universal  fact  through- 
out nature  I7.  That  causation  governs  sickness  and  death  in 
part,  is  self-evident :  therefore  all  sickness,  all  d«ath,  prema- 
ture and  natural,  are  equally  the  legitimate  and  invariable 
effects  of  violated  physical  law.  In  one  sense  they  may  be 
called  '  divine  chastisements,'  because  they  are  chastisements 
consequent  on  breaking  the  Divine  laws,  but  in  no  other. 
Both  reason  and  fact  impel  us  to  this  conclusion.  No  middle 
ground  remains.  In  fact,  no  ground  but  to  ascribe  all  health 
and  sickness,  life  and  death,  to  inflexible  causation.  Strange 
that  moral  and  intellectual  leaders  and  teachers — pseudo 
EDUCATED  men  even — should  entertain  and  promulgate  a 


44  HEALTH. 

doctrine  as  injurious  and  utterly  absurd,  as  that  sickness  and 
premature  death  can  possibly  be  providential,  or  occur  unless 
caused  by  some  violation  of  the  organic  laws !  Men  kill 
themselves,  and  parents  their  children — with  kindness  often — 
by  countless  thousands,  and  then  essay  to  throw  off  all  the 
blame  from  their  own  guilty  selves  by  ascribing  all  to  "  Provi- 
dence." Consummate  ignorance.  Even  downright  blasphemy ! 
Though  the  sick  may  be  consoled  by  being  clerically  exhorted 
to  "  submit  to  this  afflictive  dispensation  of  Divine  Providence, 
trusting  that  this  chastening  rod  of  your  Heavenly  Father  will 
teach  you  resignation  to  his  will,"  more  than  by  being  reproved 
for  inflictin-g  this  distress  upon  themselves,  and  occasioning 
this  trouble  to  others,  consequent  on  disobeying  the  laws  of 
health,  yet  the  latter  course  would  tend  to  prevent  SUBSEQUENT 
sickness  by  inculcating  subsequent  obedience.  Though  for 
clergymen  to  tell  parents,  on  the  death  of  beloved  children, 
" '  The  Lord  gave  and  the  Lord  taketh  away,'  probably  from 
evil  to  come — that  this  bereavement  is  a  merciful '  Providence* 
sent  to  wean  your  affections  from  earth,  and  prepare  them  for 
heaven,"*  and  the  like,  may  comfort  their  lacerated  feelings 

*  25.       TO    BE    WEANED    FROM    THE    WORLD 

Is  to  be  weaned  out  of  it.  Are  we  not  created  and  adapted  expressly 
to  enjoy  it  ?  Suppose  us  wholly  weaned,  say  from  property,  we  should 
neither  earn  nor  save  a  single  thing,  and  thus  soon  become  utterly  desti- 
tute of  all  earthly  comforts.  Such  weaning  is  WICKED.  Weaned  wholly 
from  family,  we  should  see  them  perish  by  wretched  inches,  without  lift 
ing  a  finger  for  their  relief;  which,  not  weaned,  we  should  gladly  proffer- 
Weaned  on  the  score  of  appetite,  starvation  would  be  the  fatal  conse 
quence;  and  thus  of  every  earthly  enjoyment.  Great  preparation  for 
heaven  this  being  weaned  from  earth !  Does  enjoying  this  life,  that  is, 
obeying  its  laws,  unfit  for  heaven  ?  Are  earth  and  heaven  thus  in  neces- 
sary collision?  Rather,  has  not  our  benevolent  Father  HARMONIZED  the 
two  ?  Is  not  the  doctrine  that  they  conflict  a  virtual  impeachment  of  His 
wisdom  or  goodness  ?  Rather,  it  is  a  heathen  relic  of  that  barbarous  no 
tion,  that  human  agony  is  God's  delight,  and  insures  his  favor — a  doctrine 
at  universal  war  with  every  adaptation  of  nature  l  That  God  is  best 
pleased  when  we  are  most  happy,  nature  teaches  us  universally  and  PRAC 
TICALLT;  thus  assuring  us  that  the  best  possible  preparation  for  another 
life  consists  in  obeying  the  laws  of  this;  that  is,  in  rendering  ourselves  as 
happy  as  possible  in  this ;  whereas,  that  whatever  renders  us  unhappy 


HEALTH    AND    SICKNESS   GOVERNED    BY    LAWS.  45 

temporarily;  whereas,  telling  them  that  this  death  was  the 
painful  consequence  of  some  violations  of  the  law  of  health, 
and  could  have  been  prevented  by  their  observance,  might 
temporally  increase  their  sorrow,  yet  the  latter  course  would 
tend  powerfully  to  secure  subsequent  obedience,  and  thus  pre- 
vent farther  bereavement  and  suffering  ;  whereas,  the  former 
facilitates  both  by  blinding  their  eyes  to  the  real  cause  of  their 
calamity.  Fully  to  realize  that  nothing  but  VIOLATED  LAW 
can  possibly  occasion  sickness  or  premature  death,  especially 
juveniles,  will  enforce,  by  the  most  powerful  of  all  motives, 
the  study  and  observance  of  those  laws,  and  thus  ward  off 
sickness  and  preserve  life,  while  these  false  consolations  lull 
parents  and  destroy  children  by  scores  of  thousands  annually. 
On  this  point  hear  Mrs.  Sedgwick. 

"WAS    IT   PROVIDENCE? 

"  Take,  for  example,  a  young  girl  bred  delicately  in  town,  and 
shut  up  in  a  nursery  in  her  childhood — in  a  boarding-school  through 
her  youth — never  accustomed  to  air  or  exercise,  two  things  that 
the  law  of  God  makes  essential  to  health.  She  marries ;  her 
strength  is  inadequate  to  the  demands  upon  it.  Her  beauty  fades 
early.  She  languishes  through  her  hard  offices  of  giving  birth  to 
children,  suckling,  and  watching  over  them,  and  dies  early.  'What 
a  strange  Providence,  that  a  mother  should  be  taken  in  the  midst 
of  life  from  her  children !'  Was  it  Providence  ?  No !  Provi- 
dence had  assigned  her  threescore  years  and  ten;  a  term  long 
enough  to  rear  her  children,  and  to  see  her  children's  children ; 
but  she  did  not  obey  the  laws  on  which  life  depends,  and  of  course 
she  lost  it. 

"A  father,  too,  is  cut  off  in  the  midst  of  his  days.  He  is  a  use- 
ful and  distinguished  citizen,  and  eminent  in  his  profession.  A 
general  buzz  arises  on  eveiy  side  :  '  What  a  striking  Providence  !' 
This  man  has  been  in  the  habit  of  studying  half  of  the  night ;  of 
passing  his  days  in  his  office  or  in  the  courts ;  of  eating  luxurious 
dinners,  and  drinking  various  kinds  of  wine.  He  has  every  day 
violated  the  laws  on  which  health  depends.  Did  Providence  cut 

here,  as  does  grief  for  the  loss  of  children  and  friends,  violates  the  laws  of 
earth  and  thereby  unfits  for  heaven.  A  preparation  for  heaven,  so  far  from 
weaning  us  from  earth,  or  diminishing  our  terrestrial  enjoyments,  consists  in 
rendering  ourselves  as  perfectly  happy  on  earth,  and  as  perfectly  attached  to 
its  enjoyments,  as  is  possible.  Earth  and  heaven  are  not  antagonistic  ene- 
mies, but  are  children  of  the  same  benevolent  Parent,  and  in  universal 
alliance 


46      .  .  HEALTH 

him  off?  The  evil  rarely  ends  here.  The  diseases  of  the  father 
are  often  transmitted ;  and  a  feeble  mother  rarely  leaves  behind 
her  vigorous  children. 

"  It  has  been  customary  in  some  of  our  cities,  for  young  ladies 
to  walk  in  thin  shoes  and  delicate  stockings  in  mid-winter.  A 
healthy,  blooming  young  girl  thus  dressed  in  violation  of  Heaven's 
laws,  pays  the  penalty — a  checked  circulation,  colds,  fever,  and 
death.  '  What  a  sad  Providence !'  exclaimed  her  friends.  Was  it 
Providence,  or  her  own  folly  ?  A  beautiful  young  bride  goes  night 
after  night  to  parties,  made  in  honor  of  her  marriage.  She  has  a 
slightly  sore  throat ;  perhaps  the  weather  is  inclement ;  but  she 
must  go  with  her  neck  and  arms  bare ;  for  who  ever  saw  a  bride  in 
a  close  evening  dress  ?  She  is  consequently  seized  with  an  inflam- 
mation of  the  lungs,  and  the  grave  receives  her  before  her  bridal 
days  are  over.  '  What  a  Providence  !'  exclaims  the  world.  '  Gut 
off  in  the  rnidst  of  happiness  and  hope  !'  Alas,  did  she  not  cut  the 
thread  of  life  herself? 

"  A  girl  in  the  country,  exposed  to  our  changeful  climate,  gets  a 
new  bonnet  instead  of  getting  a  flannel  garment.  A  rheumatism 
is  the  consequence.  Should  the  girl  sit  down  tranquilly  with  the 
,idea  that  Providence  has  sent  the  rheumatism  upon  her,  or  should 
she  charge  it  on  her  vanity,  and  avoid  the  folly  in  future  ?  Look, 
my  young  friends,  at  the  mass  of  diseases  that  are  incurred  by  in- 
temperance in  eating  and  in  drinking,  in  study  or  in  business;  by 
neglect  of  exercise,  cleanliness,  and  pure  air ;  by  indiscreet  dress- 
ing, tight-lacing,  etc. ;  and  all  is  quietly  imputed  to  Providence ! 
Is  there  not  impiety  as  well  as  ignorance  in  this  ?  Were  the 
physical  laws  strictly  observed,  from  generation  to  generation,  there 
would  be  an  end  to  the  frightful  diseases  that  cut  life  short,  and  of 
the  long  list  of  maladies  that  make  life  a  torment  or  a  trial*  It  is 
the  opinion  of  those  who  best  understand  the  physical  system,  that 
this  wonderful  machine,  the  body,  this  '  goodly  temple,'  would 
gradually  decay,  and  men  would  die  as  if  falling  asleep." 


26.       HEALTH    ATTAINABLE SPONTANEOUS. 

NOT  only  is  it  governed  by  laws,  but  its  laws  are  within 
our  reach9.  Nor  are  they  difficult  of  application.  Such  ap- 
plication is  even  SPONTANEOUS.  To  preserve  health,  we  have 
neither  to  visit  some  distant  clime,  nor  to  do  some  great  thing, 
nor  even  to  practice  the  least  self-denial,  but  only  not  to  PRE- 
VENT it.  Let  nature  "  have  her  perfect  work,"  and  she  will 
furnish  it  already  at  our  hands.  Perfect  health  is  simply  the 
perfect  operation  of  all  her  organs  and  functions  23.  This  she 
has  taken  the  utmost  pains  to  secure.  Behold  the  labor  she 
has  bestowed  to  construct  the  body  with  a  degree  of  perfection 


ATTAINABLE    AND    SPONTANEOUS.  47 

attainable  only  by  infinite  skill  and  power.  These  organs 
thus  infinitely  perfect,  are  their  functions  less  so  ?  Was  not 
this  perfection  of  structure  devised  expressly  to  secure  cor- 
responding perfection  of  function  ?  Else  what  its  use  ?  Un- 
less deranged  or  prevented  by  violating  law,  every  organ  will 
go  on  from  the  beginning  of  life  until  worn  out  by  extreme 
old  age,  to  perform  its  office  with  all  the  regularity  of  the 
sun,  and  with  a  power  commensurate  to  any  demand  compati- 
ble with  the  laws  of  our  being.  To  argue  our  doctrine  that 
health  is  SPONTANEOUS — as  natural  as  breathing,  or  eating,  or 
sleeping,  is  in  fact  only  these  and  other  functions  in  their 
latural  and  vigorous  action 20 — is  to  attempt  to  prove  an  axiom, 
^r  that  we  see  what  we  see.  Allowed  their  natural  play,  all 
ihe  organs  will  go  on  perpetually  to  manufacture  life,  health, 
and  happiness,  which,  unless  their  flow  is  arrested  by  violating 
law,  will  flow  on  as  freely  and  spontaneously  to  every  human 
being  as  the  river  to  its  own  ocean  home.  An  illustrative 
anecdote. 

A  boy  once  inadvertently  whistled  in  school.  "  John,  you 
rogue,  what  made  you  whistle  ?"  inquired  the  angered  teacher. 
"  1  didn't,  master,"  replied  John,  "  it  WHISTLED  ITSELF."  It 
breathes  itself,  sees  itself,  moves  itself,  sleeps  itself,  digests  itself, 
thinks  and  feels  itself — EVERY  THING  ITSELF — and  breathes, 
sees,  thinks,  feels,  every  thing,  exactly  RIGHT,  unless  prevented, 
if  the  proper  food  and  stimulus  be  presented.  Is  it  difficult  to 
breathe  ?  or  to  breathe  right  ?  or  enough  ?  or  wholesome  air  ? 
Rather,  it  is  exceedingly  difficult  NOT  to  breathe,  or  to  breathe 
too  little,  or  a  noxious  atmosphere.  Is  it  hard  to  eat  ?  or  to  eat 
enough  ?  or  to  eat  what  is  healthy  ?  Yet  the  converse  is  al- 
ways difficult.  These  illustrations  apply  to  every  function  of 
the  body.  Every  organ  is  constituted  to  commence  its  normal 
and  healthy  action  from  the  first,  and  perform  it  spontaneously 
throughout  life  ;  and  that  to  a  much  greater  age  than  any  now 
attain.  Indeed,  it  requires  great,  or  else  long-continued  VIO- 
LENCE to  arrest  their  healthy  and  pleasurable  functions  at  any 
time  between  birth  and  death.  Hence,  there  is  no  more  need 
of  our  becoming  sick,  or  of  these  functions  becoming  enfeebled 
or  disordered,  than  of  our  shutting  our  eyes  for  weeks  together, 


48  HEALTH 

or  refusing  to  breathe,  cr  move,  or  preventing  any  other  func- 
tion by  force.  The  power  of  the  human  constitution  to  resis* 
disease  is  perfectly  astonishing.  How  many  readers  have 
abused  their  health  outrageously,  hundreds  of  times,  with  com- 
parative  impunity ;  and  even  after  they  '  ive  thus  broken 
down  their  constitutions,  have  still  endured  ^ckness  and  suffer- 
ing  till  they  wonder  that  they  are  alive  ?  What  would  your 
health  now  have  been  if  you  had  promoted  instead  of  abusing 
it  ?  How  much  you  could  once  endure  ?  How  many  hard- 
ships go  through  ?  How  much  it  took  to  break  you  down  ? 
Nor  do  any  of  us  realize  how  much  we  abuse  our  health. 
Every  day  and  night,  and  almost  hour,  we  do  something  more 
or  less  detrimental  to  health — stay  in-doors  too  much  ;  or  re- 
main much  in  heated  rooms ;  or  exercise  too  little ;  or  else 
labor  too  much,  or  not  exactly  right ;  or  sleep  in  close  rooms ; 
or  eat  too  much,  or  what  is  injurious,  or  at  least  a  diet  less  ben- 
eficial than  other  things  we  might  eat ;  or  over-tax  the  mind  ;  or 
'perhaps  exercise  it  too  little ;  or  sit  in  an  unwholesome  pos- 
ture ;  or  neglect  the  skin  ;  or  dress  too  warm  ;  or  take  cold  ; 
or  one  or  another  of  those  ten  thousand  kindred  things,  more 
or  less  injurious  to  health,  which  all  perpetrate  daily,  and 
almost  perpetually.  All  this,  in  addition  to  those  extreme  im- 
prudences of  which  almost  all  are  more  or  less  guilty  every 
little  while.  Yet,  in  spite  of  all  this  abuse  of  health  by  all, 
see  how  healthy  many  continue  to  be,  often  for  eighty  or  a 
hundred  years.  Alcohol  is  rank  poison  to  the  human  constitu- 
tion, yet  see  how  many  will  drink  it  daily,  and  often  to  drunk- 
enness, for  thirty,  and  even  fifty  years,  without  destroying 
their  health,  though  they  greatly  impair  it.  See  what  pois- 
onous drugs  some  will  take,  yet  live  through  it.  In  short, 
nature  has  done  her  utmost  to  bestow  vigorous  and  uninter- 
rupted health  on  every  member  of  the  human  family,  and  to 
ward  off  disease  and  prolong  life.  Behold  and  wonder  at  the 
physical  stamina  and  energy  provided  for  by  nature,  and  then 
say  whether  every  human  being  is  not  constituted  for  health. 
Even  admitting  that  children  often  inherit  diseases  from  pa- 
rents, yet  the  fact  that  parents  have  health  sufficient  to  become 
parents,  is  abundant  proof  that  their  offspring,  by  a  careful  ob- 


A    DUTV.  49 

servance  of  the  laws  of  health,  can  ward  off  the  inherited 
predisposition,  and  enjoy  excellent  health  to  a  good  old  age — 
a  point  fully  established  in  "  Hereditary  Descent,"  stereo- 
type edition,  and  confirmed  by  the  fact,  to  be  established  in 
this  volume,  that  all  diseases,  taken  in  season,  can  be  warded 
off  by  a  correct  physiological  regimen.  All  can  therefore 
preserve  health  and  escape  disease. 

27.      HEALTH    A   DUTY  :      SICKNESS    AND    PREMATURE    DEATH    SINFUL. 

Since,  therefore,  health  is  attainable — is  even  spontaneous — 
and  can  be  destroyed  only  with  difficulty,  and  especially, 
since  it  is  thus  infinitely  valuable Sl,  is  it  not  the  solemn  and 
imperious  DUTY  of  all  to  preserve  it  if  good,  and  regain  it  if 
impaired  ?  If  not,  then  there  is  no  such  thing  as  obligation  ; 
because  we  can  discharge  no  duty — accomplish  no  end — 
without  it,  and  only  in  proportion  to  its  vigor.  Is  it  not  our 
duty  to  do  good,  worship  God,  love  and  provide  for  family, 
reason,  enjoy  the  bounties  of  nature — in  short,  to  exercise  all 
the  powers  and  faculties  God  has  graciously  bestowed  upon 
us  ?  Unless  it  is  sinful  to  impair  these  divine  gifts  by  debility, 
or  bury  them  in  a  premature  grave,  then  nothing  can  be 
sinful.  And  is  it  not  our  duty  to  give  our  fellow-men  pleasure 
instead  of  pain  ?  Is  it  not  then  WRONG  to  subject  them  to  all 
the  care  and  weariness  of  watching  around  our  sick  bed,  and 
to  all  the  anxiety  consequent  on  our  sickness  ?  And  is  it  not 
most  wicked — almost  the  climax  of  crime — to  break  down  th? 
spirits  of  dear  friends,  especially  of  our  own  families  and 
companions,  with  anguish  by  our  death,  whereas  we  might,  by 
obeying  the  laws  of  health,  gladden  them  with  our  friendship, 
support  them  by  our  labors,  sustain  them  by  our  sympathies, 
and  guide  them  by  our  counsels  ? 

The  pain  accompanying  disease  and  death,  constitutes  the 
highest  order  of  proof  that  they  are  sinful ;  because  no  pain 
can  ever  exist  except  induced  by  violated  law 5  6,  and  violating 
law  is  sin  itself.  Avoid  sinning  and  you  escape  suffering,  but 
all  suffering  is  the  consequence  of  sinning 6.  The  very  pain- 
fulness  of  sickness  is  therefore  the  witness  of  its  sinfulness. 
Sickness  is  caused  by  violating  the  laws  of  health.  Such 
o 


50  HEALTH 

violation — ALL  violation— -of  law  is  WRONG.  Therefore  all 
sickness  is  sinful,  and  the  consequent  pain  is  its  penalty. 
Health  is  the  ordinance  of  nature — a  fulfilment  of  the  organic 
laws — as  well  as  the  great  instrumentality  of  every  other  duty, 
and  therefore  our  first  and  highest  duty  to  our  fellow-men, 
ourselves,  and  our  God — to  our  fellow-men  because  we  cannot 
discharge  our  obligations  to  them  without  it,  and  if  sick,  we 
wrong  them  by  occasioning  them  pain ;  to  ourselves  because  we 
can  perform  no  duty 21,  and  enjoy  no  blessing ',  without  it ;  and 
to  our  God  because  we  are  under  the  most  imperious  obligation 
to  obey  His  laws,  those  of  health  of  course  included.  Ye  who 
demur,  say  what  "DIVINE  RIGHT"  have  you  to  violate  God's 
laws?  Show  "indulgences"  from  the  court  of  heaven,  granting 
permission  to  trample  on  divine  ordinances,  or  else  admit  such 
trespass  and  its  consequent  sickness  to  be  wicked. 

Premature  death  is  still  more  sinful,  because  occasioned  by 
a  still  greater  violation  of  law — is  indeed  the  chief  of  crimes. 
Is  not  suicide  most  wicked  ?  Yet  it  consists  in  the  same  breach 
of  these  same  laws,  which,  broken,  cause  premature  death. 
As  to  shorten  life  by  self-murder,  is  a  sin  of  the  highest  grade, 
so  to  shorten  life  by  injuring  health,  is  equally  wicked, 
because  both  result  precisely  alike,  namely,  in  the  destruction 
of  life,  and  by  similar  means,  namely,  a  breach  of  the  same 
laws.  Unless  we  have  a  "  divine  right"  to  COMMIT  SUICIDE, 
gradual  or  sudden,  we  have  none  to  incur  premature  death  ; 
and  inasmuch  as  suicide  is  most  heinous,  by  so  much,  and 
for  precisely  the  same  reason,  is  it  equally  wicked  to  induce 
death  by  the  careless  exposure  cr  wanton  injury  of  health. 
The  extreme  painfulness,  too,  of  premature  death,  is  nature's 
proclamation  that  its  cause  is  proportionately  sinful 6.  '  Fraud, 
robbery,  and  the  like,  are  as  trifling  sins  in  comparison  to  the 
destruction  of  health,  as  life  is  more  valuable  than  property ; 
and  thus  of  other  crimes. 

il  But,"  objects  one,  "  how  can  we  HELP  dying  when  death 
comes  ?"  We  have  already  shown  that  it  will  never  come, 
unless  when  summoned  by  violated  law,  till  old  age  folds  us 
up  gradually  in  a  natural  and  therefore  pleasurable  decline, 
after  we  have  jio  more  desire  for  life,  or  dread  of  cteath  **,  It 


A   PRIVILEGE.  61 

is  high  time  that  sickness  and  premature  death  were  consid- 
ered to  be  what  they  really  are — high-handed  CRIMES,  against 
humanity,  against  Divinity. 

Exceptions,  of  course,  occur  wherever  persons  become  sick 
or  are  killed  by  unavoidable  accidents,  earthquakes,  and  the 
like,  or  by  their  fellow-men,  they  being  guilty  when  their 
carelessness  occasions  such  accidents,  or  they  destroy  life  by 
intent.  Yet  the  guilt  is  not  obviated  by  being  transferred 
from  the  sufferer  to  the  perpetrator.  The  same  holds  true 
where  parents  occasion  the  sickness  or  death  of  children  by  con- 
finement, improper  regimen,  extra  tenderness,  pampering  their 
appetites,  administering  poisonous  medicines,  and  the  like. 

The  preservation  of  health  then  becomes  both  our  glorious 
PRIVILEGE  26,  and  our  imperious  DUTY  27.  We  should  therefore 
STUDY  THE  LAWS  of  health,  and  then  implicitly  obey  them — 
should  make  obedience  to  the  conditions  of  health  a  matter 
of  CONSCIENCE,  and  feel  GUILTY  when  unwell ;  and  repent  and 
reform.  We  should  allow  neither  business,  nor  supposed 
pleasures,  nor  duties — NOTHING  WHATEVER — to  infringe  upon 
its  perfection,  but  make  health  PARAMOUNT — should  sacrifice 
business,  property,  society — EVERY  thing— upon  the  altar  of 

this  HIGHEST  BUSINESS  AND  DUTY  OF  LIFE. 

The  preservation  of  health  being  then  both  possible,  and  our 
imperious  and  paramount  duty,  and  sickness  and  premature 
death  being  thus  the  climax  of  crime,  and  also  avoidable, 
therefore  the  MEANS  by  which  we  can  secure  the  former  and 
prevent  the  latter  become  the  highest  object  of  human  inquiry. 
To  this  inquiry  our  subject  now  brings  us. 

CHAPTER  II. 

FOOD. 


SECTION  I. 

ITS    NECESSITY,    SELECTION,    MASTICATION,    AND    DIGESTION. 

SINCE  health  consists  in  the  normal  and  vigorous  action  of 
all  the  physical  functions 20,  its  preservation  of  course  consists 
in  their  preservation,  and  its  restoration  in  their  restoration ; 


62  FOOD. 

nor  is  anj  thing  else  required  either  to  perpetuate  health, 
eradicate  all  forms  of  disease,  and  prolong  life  to  "  green 
old  age" — a  means  as  simple  as  the  end  is  important81. 
What,  then,  are  some  of  these  functions,  and  by  what  means 
can  they  be  preserved  when  vigorous,  and  restored  when 
impaired  ? 

28.     MAN'S  REQUISITION  FOR  VITALITY. 

Man — all  animal  being — is  so  constituted  that  every  func- 
tion  of  life — every  exercise  of  muscle,  nerve,  and  organ,  all 
•ve  say,  do,  and  are,  all  the  operations  of  our  entire  and  com- 
plicated mental  and  physical  nature  EXPEND  VITALITY.  As 
no  machinery  can  be  propelled  without  consuming  that  power 
which  impels,  so  that  wonderful  mechanism  which  manufac- 
tures life,  mind  included,  cannot  move  one  iota,  in  whole  or  in 
.part,  without  thereby  WORKING  UP  that  vitality  or  animal 
energy  which  constitutes  its  motive  principle.  And  since  life 
consists  in  a  vast  variety  and  complication  of  functions,  some 
of  which  are  often  most  powerful  and  intense,  of  course  its 
consumption  of  vitality  must  be  proportionally  great,  even 
though  individual  functions  should  expend  but  little.  And 
this  consumption  of  vitality  is  in  the  exact  ratio  of  that  life 
which  it  produces,  because  the  latter  CONSISTS  IN  the  former. 
And  as  we  sometimes  think,  feel,  do,  and  therefore  LIVE  more 
in  one  hour  than  at  other  times  in  ten  or  twenty  hours,  we  of 
course  consume  vital  energy  proportionally  fast.  Moreover, 
all  these  functions  are  performed  with  as  much  more  rapidity 
and  efficiency  when  this  supply  is  abundant,  than  when  it  ia 
reduced,  as  machinery  does  when  the  "  head"  of  steam  or 
water  is  great,  than  when  it  is  low ;  and  for  a  kindred  reason. 
Except  in  cases  of  corpulency,  we  think,  feel,  perform,  and 
therefore  LIVE  more  or  less  easily,  vigorously,  and  effectually 
in  proportion  as  this  supply  is  abundant,  and  become  enfeebled 
in  proportion  as  it  declines. 

It  is  therefore  perfectly  obvious  that  unless  this  great  and 
constant  consumption  is  re-supplied,  exhaustion  must  inevita- 
bly follow,  which  of  course  proportionally  reduces  life,  and  if 
carried  too  far,  suspends  it  altogether. 


NECESSITY    OF   FOOD.  53 

From  what  sources,  then,  is  this  re-supply  derived  ?  Of 
what  manufactured,  and  how  augmented,  that  we  may  know 
how  to- keep  this  "  head  "  of  vitality  always  "  high  ?" 

29.       REQUISITION    FOR    FOOD. 

Man  is  un  EATING  animal.  Food  is  indispensable  to  animal 
growth  and  tissue,  and  to  that  terrestrial  manifestation  of 
mentality  connected  therewith  ".  It  furnishes  an  element 
absolutely  necessary  to  nutrition  and  vitality.  The  second 
thing  we  instinctively  do  on  entering  the  world,  is  to  seek 
AL.MENT.  The  MATERIAL  department  of  man's  nature — 
bone,  muscle,  nerve,  organs — is  subject  to  a  pecpetual  waste 
of  those  materials  of  which  it  is  composed — a  waste  com- 
piled to  equal  one-seventh  of  the  entire  body  annually,  and 
to  the  whole  of  it  every  seven  years,  but  probably  much 
greater  than  this ;  which  waste  must  be  re-supplied  by  pro- 
perties eliminated  from  food  by  the  process  of  digestion.  This 
waste  unsupplied,  as  when  food  cannot  be  obtained,  or  is  not 
digested  on  account  of  sickness,  the  subject  becomes  emaciated, 
perhaps  wastes  away  almost  to  "skin  and  bones,"  and  looks 
and  feels  haggard,  ghastly,  and  "  gone ;"  his  strength  fails, 
spirits  sink  within  him,  and  life  ebbs  away  till  it  takes  its  final 
exit.  Famine  is  indeed  a  "  weary  thing  "  to  endure,  and  fatal 
in  its  effects  on  mind  and  body ;  because  it  deprives  the  sys- 
tem of  elements  indispensable  to  life.  So  craving  is  the  de- 
mand for  food,  that,  when  it  is  not  supplied,  and  digestion  is 
gcjd,  the  fatty  matter  is  all  taken  up  by  secretion,  and  emptied 
into  the  circulation ;  then  muscular,  nervous,  cerebral,  and  oth- 
er tissues  follow,  until  this  consumptive  process  is  arrested  by 
death.  Hence  the  gaunt,  meager  aspect  of  consumptive  and 
dyspeptic  patients.  Hence,  also,  fat  or  indolent  persons  can 
endure  famine  better  than  lean  or  active  ones,  because  the 
corpulent  have  more  to  live  upon  than  the  spare,  and  the  active 
live  the  fastest 28. 

A.11  should  therefore  see  to  it  that  they  furnish  the  system 
with  all  the  food  it  requires.  Starvation  is  even  certain  and 
speedy  RUIN.  Few  can  live  without  food  more  than  from 
'twenty  to  twenty-five  days,  and  most  become  debilitated,  even 


54  SELECTION    OF    FOOD. 

Jo  insensibility,  in  a  much  shorter  time,  and  are  usually  ren- 
dered faint  by  fasting  a  single  day,  or  omitting  only  one  meal, 
or  even  not  eating  at  the  usual  time. 

This  demand  for  food  being  thus  imperative,  and  too  obvious 
to  require  additional  remark,  we  proceed  to  inquire  concerning 
its  re-supply. 

30.       ORGANIZED    BODIES    ALONE    EDIBL2. 

Vegetable  nature  is  constituted  to  draw  its  nourishment 
directly  from  the  earth.  Not  so  with  man.  His  nature 
imperiously  demands  that  his  food  should  consist  of  substances 
already  organized,  because  inorganic  bodies  do  not  contain 
the  requisite  material.  Nor  are  such  bodies  wanting,  but 
abound  in  any  required  quantity  and  variety.  Open  our 
eyes  wherever  we  will,  upon  surrounding  nature,  we  behold 
not  only  a  vast  variety  of  "  four-footed  beasts  and  all  manner 
of  creeping  things,"  but  also  a  vast  array  and  variety  of 
vegetable  esculents  and  fruits,  delicious  to  the  palate,  and 
laden  with  nourishment  for  the  body.  A  boundless  range  of 
edibles  is  thus  spread  out  broadcast  before  man,  from  which 
to  make  his  own  selection.  Nature  neither  restricts  him  in 
variety,  nor  stints  him  in  quantity ;  but  says  to  all,  "  Arise ; 
prepare  and  eat."  Our  subject  thus,  brings  us  naturally 
to  the 

31.       SELECTION    OF    FOOD. 

As  some  species  of  the  vegetable  kingdom  flourish  in  par- 
ticular kinds  of  soil,  but  in  no  others,  that  is,  require  particu- 
lar kinds  of  sustenance,  so  some  species  of  the  animal  kingdom 
are  adapted  to  live  on  particular  kinds  of  food,  and  flourish  on 
no  other.  Thus  whales  fatten  on  the  squid,  while  lions, 
tigers,  and  beasts  of  prey  have  a  natural  aptitude  for  animals 
just  killed,  whereas  herbiverous  animals  loathe  flesh  and  thrive 
best  on  a  vegetable  diet,  and  particular  species  of  the  former 
on  given  kinds  of  the  latter.  Nor  can  the  carnivorous  tribes 
subsist — at  least  not  perfect  their  natures — when  fed  exclu- 
sively on  herbage,  nor  the  sheep  live  on  raw  flesh.  That 
certain  species  of  animals  are  constitutionally  adapted  to' 


MFFERE^T    DIETS    FEED    DIFFERENT    POWERS.  55 

subsist  on  particular  kinds  of  food,  is  both  self-eviden",  and  a 
beautiful  provision  of  nature  by  which  to  feed  a  far  greater 
number  than  could  otherwise  find  subsistence. 

The  lower  the  order  of  animal,  moreover,  the  lower  the 
grade  of  its  food.  Thus  the  squid,  an  exceedingly  stupid  and 
flabby  animal,  and  so  soft  in  texture  that  it  can  be  kneaded 
into  a  homogeneous  mass  by  hand,  feeds  on  a  slimy  organiza- 
tion of  the  lowest  grade,  and  in  its  turn  feeds  the  whale,  the 
texture  of  which  is  much  higher  and  stronger.  Animals 
which  feed  on  carrion,  as  the  jackall,  turkey-buzzard,  and  the 
like,  fill  a  place  in  the  scale  of  intelligence  and  power  much 
lower  than  the  lion,  eagle,  etc.  The  mastodon  was — perhaps 
still  is — endowed  with  a  most  extraordinary  amount  of  power, 
and  accordingly  fed  on  browse,  the  texture  of  which  is  more 
dense  and  firm  than  probably  anything  else  eaten.  Vegetable 
life  is  lower  in  the  scale  of  being  than  animal,  and  draws 
its  sustenance  directly  from  the  earth,  which  animals  can- 
not do.  Monkeys  are  adapted  to  live  on  fruits,  nuts,  eggs, 
and  the  like,  an  order  of  food  evidently  higher  than  roots,  to 
which  the  swine  is  adapted,  and  accordingly  are  more  highly 
organized.  In  fact,  all  animals  are  superior  to  their  food,  else 
they  could  not  seize  or  pluck  it,  and  sprightly  animals,  as  mice, 
birds,  deer,  and  the  like,  are  food  for  those  still  more  sprightly, 
as  the  cat,  eagle,  tiger,  etc. ;  while  strong  or  lazy  animals 
feed  on  what  is  still  less  so.  Indeed,  the  natural  food  of  any 
animal  furnishes  a  correct  index  of  the  character  of  that  ani- 
mal ;  and  the  more  limited  the  food  of  any  species  the  more 
limited  the  capacity  of  that  species.  So  man's  range  of  food 
embraces  the  diet  of  nearly  all  other  animals,  and  accord- 
ingly his  characteristics  embrace  those  of  the  whole  animal 
kingdom. 

32.      DIFFERENT   DIETS    FEED    DIFFERENT    POWERS. 

Though  man  is  well  nigh  omnivorous,  yet  do  all  kinds  of 
vood  nourish  him  equally  well  ?  Is  he  not,  in  common  with 
aU  animated  nature,  also  adapted  to  live  more  especially  on 
particular  KINDS  of  food  ?  These  questions  are  all  effectually 
answered  by  the  fundamental  law  of  diet,  that  particvlar 


56  SELECTION    OF    FOOD  , 

kinds  of  food  are  constitutionally  adapted  to  develop  certain 
physical  and  mental  qualities,  and  other  kinds  other  powers. 
Thus,  that  the  natural  diet  of  the  lion  and  the  tiger  is  consti- 
tutionally adapted  to  develop  both  their  physiology  and  men- 
tality, and  that  the  natural  food  of  the  squirrel,  sheep,  shark, 
etc.,  is  every  way  adapted  to  feed  those  very  powers  pos- 
sessed by  these  respective  animals,  and  thus  of  all  other  spe- 
cies, is  not  a  matter  of  opinion,  but  a  law  of  NATURE, 
established  by  the  fact  that  to  deprive  them  of  this  food  is  to 
weaken  their  powers,  and  usually  destroys  their  lives.  A 
position  thus  based  in  nature's  adaptations — always  for  the 
best — and  thus  pervading  all  her  works,  is  too  apparent  to 
require  argument,  or  any  more  than  its  announcement,  to 
secure  intellectual  admission.  The  simple  fact  that  certain 
species  of  animals  have  an  aptitude  and  adaptation  for  partic- 
ular kinds  of  food,  and  flourish  on  these  kinds — that  the  tiger 
is  rendered  fiercer  by  animal  food,  but  loses  his  ferocity  when 
fed  on  bread-stuffs — that  feeding  dogs  on  raw  beef  increases 
their  ferocity,  and  thus  of  other  animals,  together  with  much 
to  the  same  purpose,  and  especially  the  general  economy  of 
nature,  prove  it  to  be  a  LAW  OF  THINGS  that  certain  kinds  of 
food  are  constitutionally  adapted  to  develop  certain  powers, 
and  other  kinds  other  faculties. 

This  provision  of  nature  for  increasing  particular  capa- 
cities in  man  and  brute,  is  exceedingly  beautiful  in  itself,  yet 
still  more  USEFUL.  Besides  feeding  the  various  natures  of 
brute  and  man,  it  enables  us  all  to  augment  or  restrain  par- 
ticular powers  and  faculties  in  ourselves,  anil  thus  diminish 
propensity,  while  we  feed  our  intellectual  and  moral  powers. 

The  question  then  becomes  all-important — WHAT  kinds  of 
food  naturally  develop  particular  physical  and  mental  powers  ? 
a  question  as  little  understood  as  it  is  vast  in  its  influence  on 
human  capability,  virtue,  and  happiness.  This  subject  should 
therefore  become  the  universal  study  of  mankind  till  he  com- 
pletely understands  it  in  all  its  various  ramifications,  and 
knows  just  what  to  eat  and  drink  in  order  to  stimulate  or  sub- 
due all  his  physical  and  mental  powers.  Though  the  author 
does  not  claim  a  complete  knowledge  of  this  vast  and  *astl 


NATURAL    APPETITE   A    CORRECT   GUIDE.  57 

important  subject,  yet  he  proposes  to  point  out  its  LAND-MARKS, 
and  thus  facilitate  its  general  application  and  further  investi- 
gation. 

33.       UNPERVERTED    APPETITE    AN    INFALLIBLE    DIRECTORY. 

Having  thus  ordained  that  particular  kinds  of  food  shall 
develop  particular  powers,  nature  has  not  left  man  or  brute  to 
ascertain  by  chance,  and  eat  by  force,  the  various  kinds  best 
for  each  severally,  either  in  general,  or  on  special  occasions, 
but  has  kindly  furnished  all  with  an  infallible  dietetic  GUIDE  in 
the  natural  RELISH  of  each  for  the  particular  kinds  required. 
UNPERVERTED  APPETITE  will  always  conduct  all  to  that  diet 
best  for  them,  both  in  general  and  on  special  occasions.  This 
principle  constitutes  a  part  of  that  great  arrangement  by  which 
nature  secures  to  all  the  greatest  amount  of  happiness1.  As 
la'y  obeyed  confers  enjoyment67,  so  fulfilling  the  laws  of 
appetite,  that  is,  eating  those  kinds  of  food  best  for  us,  of 
course  yields  the  highest  attainable  degree  of  gustatory  plea- 
sure. The  very  nature  of  things  requires  that  the  diet  best 
for  any  and  all  should  TASTE  best,  or  else  the  fundamental 
principle,  that  fulfilling  law  confers  enjoyment,  fails  in  this 
important  aspect ;  which  is  a  palpable  absurdity.  But  since 
obedience  always  confers  happiness,  therefore  eating  what 
nature  requires  of  course  enhances  enjoyment,  both  gustatory 
and  general.  Thus,  the  lion,  tiger,  and  eagle  require  animal 
food  just  killed,  which  they  accordingly  LOVE  better  than  any 
other,  whereas  the  sheep,  horse,  rabbit,  and  the  like,  thrive  best 
on  HERBAGE,  for  which  they  have  a  natural  RELISH  ;  and  thus 
of  all  other  animals.  Nor  can  any  genus,  species,  or  indi- 
vidual of  the  animal  kingdom  enjoy  any  other  than  its  natural 
diet,  until  appetite  has  become  perverted  and  vitiated ;  nor 
live  on  unnatural  food  without  enfeebling  or  destroying  its 
peculiar  faculties.  But  all  enhance  their  powers  most,  as 
well  as  enjoy  themselves  and  their  food  best,  in  and  by  living 
OP  their  natural  diet.  This  principle  all  animated  nature 
attests,  and  reason  sanctions.  Indeed,  it  is  too  obvious  to 
require  argument  or  amplification ;  and  of  course  constitutes 
an  infallible  guidet  in  the  selection  of  our  food  for  which  all 


58  SELECTION    OF    FOOD. 

should  devoutly  thank  the  "  Giver  of  every  good  and  perfect 
gift." 

None,  therefore,  need  ever  deny  their  natural  appetite,  but 
all  should  study  how  they  can  most  completely  GRATIFY  it, 
because  they  thereby  promote  health  and  develop  their 
powers  in  the  most  effectual  manner  possible.  As  that  diet  is 
best  which  TASTES  best,  of  course  whenever  the  system 
requires  particular  kinds  of  food  to  supply  exigencies,  we  may 
rest  fully  assured  that  appetite  will  CRAVE  whatever  is  required, 
and,  by  converse,  that  whatever  natural  appetite  craves  the 
system  requires.  The  doctrine  of  self-denial,  physiology — all 
nature — utterly  repudiates ;  but,  in  the  matter  of  appetite,  as 
in  every  thing  else,  sanctions,  and  even  requires,  SELF  INDUL- 
GENCE in  the  highest  and  most  extensive  sense.  SELF-DENIAL 
is  SINFUL.  SELF-ENJOYMENT  should  be  our  universal  motto. 

Bear  in  mind,  then,  ye  lovers  of  good  living,  that  this 
volume  does  not  come  to  "  choke  you  off"  from  any  real 
dainty  or  luxury  whatever  of  the  palate — of  life — but  to  show 
you  how  you  can  the  most  effectually  ENJOY  your  food — enjoy 
all  the  luxuries  of  your  being. 

34.       APPETITE    LIABLE    TO    BECOME    PERVERTED. 

But,  though  natural  appetite  is  a  certain  guide  to  the  kinds 
of  food,  both  general  and  specific,  required  by  man  and  brute, 
yet,  in  common  with  every  other  function  of  our  nature,  it  is 
capable  of  being  PERVERTED,  and  then  always  MISLEADS. 
Thus,  a  cow  on  ship-board,  driven  at  first  by  hunger  to  eat 
meat  mixed  with  vegetables,  came  at  length  to  relish  a  flesh 
diet,  and  could  hardly  be  induced  to  return  to  her  natural 
food.  Tigers  have  be^en  fed  on  farinaceous  food,  and  many 
/dndred*  cases  of  perverted  appetite  have  been  known  to  occur 
in  the  animal  kingdom.  Man's  relish,  too,  can  become  so 
perverted  as  to  like  and  even  crave  what  is  most  noxious  in 
itself,  and  injurious  in  its  effects.  Of  this,  a  hankering  after 
tobacco,  coffee,  ardent-spirits,  malt-liquors,  and  the  like,  among 
moderns,  and  the  love  of  the  ancients  for  asafcetida,  etc., 
furnish  samples.  Indeed,  so  almost  universal  is  this  per- 
version in  civilized  life,  that  probably  every  reader  is  its  vie- 


APPETITE    GENERALLY    PERVERTED.  59 

tim ;  and  hence  the  popularity  of  many  dishes  exceedingly 
nauseating  to  natural  appetite,  and  injurious  to  the  system. 
Though  nature  tells  us  plainly  what  we  should  eat  and  what 
eschew,  by  implanting  a  natural  relish  for  the  former  and 
aversion  to  the  latter,  yet  when  highly  injurious  diet  is  habit- 
ually  FORCED  upon  her,  she  accommodates  herself  to  it  as  well 
as  she  can,  and  ultimately  even  partially  craves  it,  yet  never 
enjoys  it  with  that  keen  gustatory  pleasure  experienced  for 
her  constitutional  food.  In  fact,  few  have  any  conception  of 
the  amount  of  table  enjoyment  which  we  should  all  take  if 
our  appetites  were  unperverted.  An  unnatural  appeti*  and 
consequent  disordered  digestion,  rob  civilized  life  of  that  real 
LUXURY  of  the  palate  proffered  by  nature,  but  bartered  away 
for  the  spurious  and  inferior  gratification  of  modern  cookery. 
Nature's  infallible  pilot  to  a  healthy  diet  is  thus  superseded 
by  artificial  and  unnatural  hankerings — always  more  craving 
than  natural  appetite — the  gratification  of  which  induces 
hosts  of  diseases  and  premature  death,  literally  frightful  to 
contemplate  and  truly  horrible  to  experience 23.  Let  us  all, 
then,  heed  the  double  warning  held  out  to  us  by  this  principle, 
and  bear  in  mind  that  we  follow  the  unnatural  cravings  of  our 
depraved  appetites — perverted  doubtless  in  the  cradle,  if  not 
before — at  our  peril — to  the  enfeebling  if  not  destruction  of 
rnind  and  body ;  and  that,  by  indulging  a  perverted  appetite, 
we  cut  off  the  very  enjoyments  of  the  palate  sought  therein. 

This  work  may,  therefore,  recommend  a  system  of  diet  at 
first  less  palatable  to  some  than  the  one  now  preferred,  yet  if 
it  recommends  NATURE'S  system,  it,  followed,  will  double  and 
quadruple  those  very  pleasures  of  the  appetite.  The  author 
is  no  ascetic.  Pains  and  penance  form  no  part  of  his  religion 
or  his  philosophy.  Everywhere  the  natural  is  to  be  substi- 
tuted for  the  unnatural — of  course  the  pleasurable  supersedes 
the  painful.  Nor  is  even  the  breaking  off  of  abnormal  habits, 
or  the  formation  of  correct  ones,  necessarily  a  self-denial,  but 
even  a  PRESENT  as  well  as  subsequent  pleasure.  The  doctrine 
of  our  first  paragraph  is  a  fundamental  LAW  OF  THINGS,  ap- 
plicable universally,  and  renders  returning  from  transgression 
not  necessarily  painful,  but  constitutionally  pleasurable ;  for 


60  SELECTION    OF    FOOD. 

if  obedience  itself  is  pleasurable,  why  not  also  returning  there- 
to ?  As,  then,  the  natural  appetite  probably  of  us  all  is  more 
or  less  morbid  and  perverted,  it  behooves  us  to  ascertain  man's 
constitutional  diet,  and  restore  to  it  its  original  food,  which  we 
shall  then  relish  far  better  than  we  now  do  all  the  "  flesh-pots" 
of  civilization.  Thus  to  sacrifice  an  unnatural  appetite  upon 
the  altar  of  a  natural  one,  is  not  sslf-denial,  but  SELF-INTEREST, 
and  therefore  to  be  eagerly  SOUGHT,  instead  of  dreaded.  How- 
ever jdepraved  our  cravings,  they  can  be  measurably  brought 
back  to  their  normal  tone,  and  this  invaluable  dietetic-  guide 
restored,  so  that  it  will  conduct  us  all  to  the  food  best  for  mind 
and  body.  Let  us,  then,  turn  a  deaf  ear  to  the  clamors  of 
perverted  appetite,  and  follow  where  nature  leads,  fully  assured 
that  a  change  from  the  artificial  to  the  natural  will  result  in  a 
far  higher  order  of  gustatory  and  general  enjoyment  than  wo 
now  experience. 

35.      THE    TRUE    ISSUE. 

In  casting  about  for  the  constitutional  food  of  man,  two  die 
tetic  systems,  both  capable  of  sustaining  life,  are  presented  to 
our  choice — animal  and  vegetable.  Is  man  constituted  to  live 
exclusively  on  either  ?  If  so,  on  which  ?  Or  is  a  MIXED  diet 
best  calculated  to  develop  all  his  powers  ?  If  so,  mixed  in 
what  PROPORTIONS  ?  Grave  questions  these,  which  natural  ap- 
petite would  answer  for  us,  yet  the  reply  to  which  perverted 
appetite  compels  us  to  seek  elsewhere.  But  he.r-pily  n&turo 
proclaims  her  economy  in  more  ways  than  one,  r  &  lhal,  though 
natural  appetite,  her  best  index,  is  generally  pe:  verted,  yet  she 
has  not  left  the  least  shadow  of  doubt  or  uncertainty  to  obscura 
her  answer  to  these  momentous  questions. 

What,  then,  are  the  respective  influences  on  mind  and  bod/ 
-—on  human  happiness — of  an  exclusively  animal  diet?  Whs.* 
of  one  exclusively  vegetable  ?  *  And  what  of  a  mixed  dbt. 

*  By  the  term  vegetable  diet. used  in  this  volume,  is  meant  one  competed 
of  any  or  all  kinds  of  grains,  gums,  fruits,  and  nuts  ;  of  eggs,  milk,  butter 
cheese,  sweets,  vegetable  oils,  and  all  edibles  not  strictly  animal,  as  we!/ 
as  of  vegetables  proper  The  term  farinaceous  will  often  bo  used  ia  * 
kindred  sense. 


A    DIETETIC    LAW.  01 

and  mixed  in  various  proportions  ?  In  short,  what  shall  we 
eat  in  order  to  attain  the  acme  of  human  perfection  and  en- 
joyment ?  Though  none  advocate  an  exclusively  animal  diet 
as  best  for  man,  yet  its  constitutional  and  general  effects  on  the 
animal  and  mental  economy  will  show,  by  approximation, 
whether  a  mixed  one  is  best,  and  if  so,  what  proportion  should 
consist  of  meat.  What,  then,  are  the  constitutional  effects  of 
animal,  and  what  of  vegetable  food  ? 

36.      A    FUNDAMENTAL    PRINCIPLE    OF    DIETETICS. 

We  have  shown  that  certain  species  of  animals  relish  cer- 
tain kinds  of  food,  and  other  species  other  kinds33.  But  WHY  ? 
Nature  never  does  any  thing  for  nothing.  Some  REASON — 
some  beneficial  END — characterizes  all  her  operations.  Then 
what  object  does  she  attain  in  thus  diversifying  the  diet  of  the 
entire  animal  kingdom  ?  Evidently  the  more  perfect  NUTRITION 
of  each  and  all.  This  conclusion  conforms  with  that  general 
fitness  and  appropriateness  which  obtain  throughout  all  nature 
does  and  requires.  Does  her  economy  observe  this  fitness 
throughout  all  the  rest  of  her  works,  and  yet  fail  to  adapt  the 
natural  diet  of  the  lion,  tiger,  shark,  horse,  swine,  squirrel,  and 
all  other  animals,  to  the  sustenance  of  their  respective  natures  ? 
Would  grass  nourish  the  physiology  and  mentality  of  the  hy- 
ena, eagle,  and  whale,  or  flesh  the  sheep  and  ox,  equally  as 
well  as  the  converse  now  does  ?  Is  not  flesh  adapted  to  sus- 
tain the  natures  of  carnivorous  animals,  herbage  that  of  her- 
biverous,  nuts  of  the  rodentia,  insects  and  grain  the  winged,  and 
thus  of  all  that  eats  ?  Else  why  their  respective  APTITUDES 
for  their  natural  diets  ?  What  stronger  proof  could  be  required 
or  had  that  the  natural  food  of  all  animals  is  constitutionally 
calculated  to  nourish  their  respective  characteristics,  mental 
and  physical,  than  that  furnished  by  this  law  of -adaptation  ? 
To  argue  a  principle  thus  self-evident,  the  truth  of  which  is 
guarantied  by  nature's  universal  economy,  is  like  arguing  an 
axiom ;  yet,  as  it  constitutes  a  universal  dietetic  guide,  every 
doubt  of  its  correctness  should  be  obviated. 

If  additional  proof  of  this  fundamental  law,  that  the  natu- 
ral diet  of  all  animals  is  constitutionally  adapted  to  feed  the 
6 


62  ANIMAL    FOOD 

respective  qualities  of  those  animals,  is  desired,  it  is  to  be 
found  in  the  fact,  that  the  food  of  all  animals  bears  a  close  re- 
semblance to  the  natures  of  those  animals  which  feed  on  it. 
Thus,  sprightly  animals  generally  live  on  a  sprightly  diet ;  as 
the  cat  on  mice,  the  tiger  and  lion  on  the  antelope,  etc.  Tall 
animals,  as  the  giraffe,  mastodon,  and  the  like,  live  on  what 
grows  high,  and  moles  on  what  grows  close  to  or  in  the  ground. 
Fish  live  mostly  on  what  swims,  and  the  swallow  on  flying  in- 
sects, whereas  birds  which  fly  less  live  more  on  worms  -and 
seeds,  till  we  come  down  to  domestic ^bwls,^vh1cH  fly  little, 
and  live  mainly  on  what  does  not  fly.  The  natural  diet  of 
swine  is  mainly  roots — a  coarse  animal  feeding  on  coarse  food. 
Strong  animals,  as  the  mastodon,  moose,  elephant,  and  the  elk, 
live  much  on  the  ends  of  limbs — about  the  firmest  food  eaten — 
while  horses  and  cattle  relish  hay,  which  is  fibrous  and  tough, 
as  its  consumers  are  hardy  and  muscular.  Sharks,  the  strong- 
est and  fleetest  of  fish  of  their  size,  feed  on  other  fish  next  in 
speed  and  strength  to  themselves.  Monkeys,  confessedly  the 
highest  order  of  animals  except  man,  feed  on  fruit  and  nuts, 
obviously  the  highest  order  of  vegetables  except  grains  and 
the  first  class  of  fruits^— reserved  for  man.  The  nutrition  of 
nuts,  too,  is  highly  concentrated,  and  their  structure  very  dense. 
Mark  one  more  universal  illustration  of  this  law.  Animals 
are  confessedly  higher  in  the  scale  of  capacity  and  enjoyment 
than  vegetables,  and  in  accordance  with  our  principle,  must 
feed  on  what  has  already  been  organized30;  whereas  vegeta- 
bles, being  lower  in  structure  and  function,  can  sustain  them- 
selves by  a  far  lower  order  of  nourishment — one  drawn  from 
the  earth,  organized  too  low  to  support  animal  life.  And,  in 
general,  the  higher  the  grade  of  any  animal,  the  higher  the 
order  of  its  food.  Even  the  vegetable  kingdom  observe  this 
law  of  correspondence  with  their  food.  Thus  the  grape,  an 
exceedingly  juicy  fruit,  seeks  a  wet  location,  and  so  do  pears 
and  plums,  whereas  apples,  less  juicy,  thrive  best  on  dry  soils. 
Though  apparent  exceptions  may  perhaps  be  cited,  yet.  the  gen- 
eral law  is  perfectly  obvious,  that  there  is  something  in  the  natu- 
ral diet  of  all  that  eats  or  grows  peculiarly  adapted  to  sustain 
both  the  physical  and  mental  characteristics  of  its  consumer. 


EXCITES    PE1  PENSITY.  63 

We  might  fortify  this  position  by  almost  any  amount  of 
evidence,  but  respectfully  submit,  whether  it  is  not  so  pal- 
pably and  universally  a  law  of  things  as  to  render  additional 
proof  superfluous.  Who  can  doubt  its  being  a  simple  yet 
effectual  means  by  which  nature  develops  the  physiology  and 
mentality  of  all  that  eats  ? 

This  fundamental  principle  of  dietetics  constitutes  an  infalli- 
ble answer  to  that  momentous  question,  "  What  shall  we  eat  ?" 
"  What  kind  of  food  will  develop  particular  powers  of  mind 
and  body  ?"  Since  the  natural  food  of  the  tiger  is  constitu- 
tionally adapted  to  develop  the  characteristics  of  the  tiger,  and 
that  of  the  sheep  the  disposition  of  the  sheep,  and  thus  of  all 
other  animals,  therefore  man  has  only  to  live  on  the  natural 
diet  of  the  tiger,  or  the  horse,  or  the  monkey,  to  develop  in 
himself,  only  in  a  far  higher  degree,  the  particular  faculties 
which  predominate  in  these  respective  animals ;  and  thus  of 
any  and  all  others.  Here  is  nature's  fundamental  dietetic 
law,  and  man's  great  dietetic  guide — as  plain,  as  infallible, 
as  God  could  render  them.  We  proceed  to  their  more  detailed 
applications. 

37.       ANIMAL    FOOD    KXCITES    PROPENSITY. 

That  the  constitutional  effect  of  animal  food  is  to  excite  the 
animal  propensities  more,  relatively,  than  the  moral  sentiments 
and  intellect,  is  established  by  the  natural  history  of  the  entire 
animal  kingdom,  and  by  the  universal  experience  of  mankind, 
both  in  masses  and  individuals.  As  the  natural  diet  of  all 
animals  is  constitutionally  calculated  to  develop  their  respect- 
ive natures 36,  and  as  the  paramount  characteristic  of  all  car- 
nivoroas  animals  is  rapacity  and  ferocity,  therefore  animal 
food,  eaten  by  man, -naturally  and  necessarily  develops  a  like 
rapacious  fierceness  in  him  also  j  whereas  a  vegetable  diet  is 
constitutionally  adapted  to  foster  docility  and  goodness.  If 
any  do  not  like  this  result  they  cannot  get  by  that  law  in 
which  it  is  based,  that  the  natural  diet  of  all  animals  is  consti- 
tutionally adapted  to  sustain  the  peculiarities  of  their  respec- 
tive natures30.  Re-read  that  section  attentively,  and  see  if  it 
does  not  imbody  an  ordinance  of  nature.  Scan  its  logic, 


64  ANIMAL   FOOD. 

scrutinize  its  bearings,  and  especially  its  harmony  wifn 
nature's  adaptations,  and  see  whether  the  principle  it  contains 
does  or  does  not  express  a  dietetic  law.  If  not,  then  this  our 
inference  might  possibly  be  fallacious.  But  if  that  principle  be 
true — and  that  it  is  so,  all  eating  nature  attests — then  this  neces- 
sary consequence,  that  animal  food  constitutionally  develops 
Combativeness  and  Destructiveness  mainly,  is  an  ordinance  of 
nature ;  so  that  man  cannot  eat  flesh  without  developing 
ferocity.  Perverted  appetite  may  remonstrate,  but  nature  will 
not  hear  such  croakings,  but  sternly  executes  her  inflexible 
decrees  ;  and  man  secures  his  own  interests  when  he  conforms 
to  her  ordinances. 

This  doctrine  that  flesh-food  constitutionally  excites  ferocity 
is  still  farther  established  by  its  being  necessary  in  the  killing 
of  food.  The  very  existence  of  carnivorous  animals  depends 
upon  and  requires  this  ferocity.  Without  it  their  sharp  claws, 
hooked  tusks,  and  powerful  muscles — all  adapting  them  to 
pounce  upon  and  slay  their  prey — would  be  as  useless  as 
swords  accompanied  with  cowardice,  or  lions  and  tigers  with- 
out Destructiveness.  What  could  a  sheep  do  with  claws  and 
tusks  ?  Would  nature  create  these  instruments  of  death  with- 
out also  creating  predominant  Destructiveness  to  accompany 
them  ?  Destructiveness  and  a  flesh  diet  are  as  universal  con- 
comitants  as  fire  and  heat ;  else  nature  is  not  adapted  to  her- 
self; nor  can  they  be  separated  without  destroying  both. 

Nor  is  this  concomitance  of  propensity  and  flesh  diet  proved 
by  this  adaptation  merely ;  it  is  still  farther  established  by 
FACTS.  How  frightful  the  roar  of  the  chafed  lion  ?  How  ter- 
rific the  horrid  yell  of  the  exasperated  tiger  ? — only  expressions 
of  their  terrible  Destructiveness.  You  provoke  them  at  your 
peril..  Remains  there  a  reasonable  doxibt  that  warm  blood 
and  raw  flesh,  yet  quivering  with  life,  are  constitutionally 
adapted  to  enhance  animality  ?  Does  not  this  concomitance 
carry  its  warrant  upon  its  very  front  ?  Animal  food,  there- 
fore, stimulates  animal  propensity. 

FACTS; — those  stubborn  way-marks  of  first  principles — also 
still  farther  attest  this  concomitance.  Thus,  take  a  dog,  about 
medium  foi  crossness,  and  feed  him  for  months  or  years  on 


THE    CONTRAST.  65 

* 

vegetables  alone,  arid  you  increase  his  docility ;  but  feed  him 
exclusively  on  raw  flesh,  and  he  becomes  fierce  and  danger, 
ous — his  Destructiveness  being  inflamed  by  a  flesh  diet,  but 
tamed  down  by  farinaceous  food.  Hence  the  known  ferocity 
of  butchers'  dogs.  Slaughter-houses  are  often  left  with  both 
doo^s  wide  open  to  air  the  meat,  yet  our  arrant  thieves — by  no 
means  wanting  in  number,  Acquisitiveness,  cunning,  or  cour- 
age— are  kept  at  bay  as  effectually  as  if  an  unchained  tiger 
guarded  the  premises.  The  ferocity  of  meat-glutted,  blood- 
fed  dogs  is  proverbial.  Not  so  with  those  fed  on  vegetables. 
WHY  this  known  difference  ?  Our  principle  answers. 

But  a  tiger,  caught  while  young  and  fed  on  a  farinaceous 
diet,  became  so  tame  that  it  was  allowed  to  go  unchained  about 
the  premises,  an.d  ate  its  food  from  the  hand,  even  after  it  was 
grown  up.  Nor  is  this  taming  of  the  tiger — that  fiercest  of 
all  animals — by  means  of  a  vegetable  diet,  more  extraordinary 
than  its  converse  of  increasing  the  ferocity  of  the  dog  by  ani- 
mal food,  which  we  may  all  see  with  our  own  eyes.  Both  are 
counterparts  of  each  other  and  of  the  same  great  dietetic  law 
before  us. 

38.   FLESH  EATERS  CONTRASTED  WITH  VEGETABLE  EATERS. 

"  Admitted,"  says  one,  "  that  animal  food  stimulates  the 
propensities  of  beasts  more  than  vegetables,  yet  is  this  true  of 
MAN  ?"  Quite  as  true  as  of  animals. .  The  ancients,  in  train- 
ing their  public  fighters  for  their  bloody  arenas,  in  which 
strength  and  ferocity  were  mainly  required,  fed  them  chiefly 
on  raw  flesh,  and  at  the  fiendishness  thereby  produced,  all 
after  ages  have  been  and  will  be  astonished.  Diversified 
experience  taught  them  that  there  was  something  in  the  diet 
of  the  lion  and  the  tiger  which  kindled  in  the  man  a»ferocity 
like  that  which  predominates  in  beasts  of  prey. 

This  experiment  of  the  ancients  might  seem  too  restricted 
for  our  reliance  if  it  had  not  been  tried,  in  every  variety  of 
modification,  over  and  over  again  thousands  of  times,  on  the 
largest  and  most  extensive  scale  imaginable,  from  the  earliest 
records  of  humanity  to  the  present  time.  Contrast  the  peace- 
able, life-sparing  Egyptians,  throughout  their  entire  history, 
6* 


66  ANIMAL    FOOD. 

> 

with  the  animal  and  man-slaughtering  Jews.  The  former 
considered  the  killing  of  animals  to,  be  a  great  crime,  the 
latter,  a  religious  ordinance.  The  former  ate  little  or  no 
meat,  and  were  amiable  and  harmless,  instead  of  warlike  and 
cruel,  throughout  their  entire  history.  The  latter,  from 
pastoral  Abraham,  and  Isaac,  and  Jacob,  were  shepherds 
throughout  all  their  generations,  and  lived  mainly  on  the  flesh 
of  their  flocks,  besides  slaughtering  immense  herds  of  cattle 
and  sheep  on  their  altars,  and  then  consuming  the  greater 
part  of  their  sacrifices  for  food  ;  and  a  more  bloodthirsty  race 
is  not  on  record.  Look  at  their  David,  truly,  "a  man  of 
blood" — at  their  ravaging  wars,  internal  and  external,  through- 
out their  national  history  ;  and  last,  but  not  least,  at  the  terrible 
carnage  which  accompanied  their  final  overthrow.  Was  ever 
the  "  trump  of  war"  sounded,  from  the  time  Abram  armed 
"  his  own  household"  and  slaughtered  five  kings  at  once,  till 
the  destruction  of  Jerusalem,  without  being  catched  and  re- 
sounded, and  again  re-echoed  throughout  hill  and  dale,  till  it 
swept  the  entire  land,  and  brought  together  old  and  young,  in 
martial  array,  eager  to  rush  upon  the  field  of  deadly  combat  ? 
And  is  there  no  relation  between  this  peaceable  character  and 
vegetable  diet  of  the  Egyptians  on  the  one  hand,  and  the  car- 
nivorous diet  and  blood  thirsty,  disposition  of  the  Jews  on  the 
other  ?  especially  since  a  flesh  diet  is  constitutionally  promo- 
tive  of  ferocity,  and  a  vegetable  of  docility 37. 

The  Greeks  and  Romans,  too,  ate  meat  in  abundance,  and 
the  terror  of  their  arms  attest  a  corresponding  ferocity  of 
temper.  The  ancients  generally  lived  on  animal  food,  and 
accordingly  were  exceedingly  warlike.  A  similar  contrast 
of  those  who  inhabit  the  middle  and  northern  latitudes,  who 
generally  eat  meat  freely,  with  the  inhabitants  of  the  tropics, 
who  eat  little  flesh,  conducts  us  to  similar  conclusions. 

But  we  need  not  look  to  other  climes  or  eras  for  "  confirma- 
tion strong  as  holy  writ,"  of  our  doctrine,  that  animal  food 
excites  propensity,  especially  Destructiveness.  Savages  gen- 
erally live  mostly  on  meat ;  hence,  to  a  great  extent,  their 
savage  disposition.  The  warwhoop  Indian  lives  mainly  by  the 
chase,  and  behold  his  unrelenting  revenge.  See  him  bury  his 


THE    CONTRAST.  67 

+*ih  in  the  live  flesh  of  his  captured  enemy,  and,  tiger-like, 
Buck  out  his  warm  blood,  exultingly  exclaiming,  "  The  sweet- 
est morsel  I  ever  tasted."  Hear  him  pow-wow  around  his 
helpless  victims,  and,  fiend-like,  torture  them  by  slow  degrees 
to  death,  by  the  most  excruciating  cruelties  possible  to  inflict. 
Revenge  is  the  food  of  the  soul  whenever  flesh  is  that  of  the 
body.  Savage  ferocity  is  the  natural  product  of  animal  food. 
Point  to  the  flesh-eating  nation,  now  or  ever,  not  destructive. 
And  those  are  most  so  who  live  most  on  flesh.  Does  not 
"John  Bull's"  "roast  beef"  bear  some  cause-and-effect 
relation  to  his  warlike  valor  on  the  field  of  slaughter,  as  well 
as  to  his  crusty  overbearance  at  home  ?  Look,  in  contrast,  at 
vegetable-eating  nations.  The  Hindoo  neither  eats  meat  nor 
loves  war ;  and  the  Chinese  eat  but  little  meat,  and  are  inferior 
fighters.  Hence,  their  unprecedented  numbers.  Contrast  the 
amiable  Japanese,  who  eschew  meat,  and  rightly  consider 
the  slaughter  of  animals  a  sin,  with  the  New  Zealand  canni- 
bal, who  eats  little  but  meat,  and  even  HIS  OWN  RACE.  The 
fact  is  no  less  remarkable  in  itself  than  true  to  our  principle, 
that  all  savage  nations  are  flesh-eaters,  and  the  more  ferocious 
the  more  exclusively  they  live  on  meat ;  whereas  all  humane, 
docile,  good-dispositioned,  peaceable  nations,  live  on  farina- 
ceous food.  As  in  all  carnivorous  animals,  Destructiveness  pre- 
dominates, in  head  and  character,  so  all  flesh-eating  nations 
have  likewise  great  Destructiveness  in  organ  and  disposition, 
while,  as  this  organ  is  small  and  faculty  weak  in  herbiverous 
animals,  so  are  they  also  deficient  in  granivorous  nations. 
And  what  renders  it  certain  that  this  difference  is  caused 
mainly  by  diet,  in  man  as  well  as  brute,  is,  that  Destructive- 
ness  is  the  CONSTITUTIONAL  concomitant  of  animal  food,  and 
necessary  in  procuring  meat37. 

Animal  food  also  INFLAMES  Destructiveness,  and  renders  it 
morbid  as  well  as  large  ;  thus  rendering  any  given  amount 
..of  it  proportionally  far  more  destructive.  Thus,  this  organ  is 
relatively  less  in  the  Anglo-American  head  than  in  that  of  the 
Germans,  Scotch,  Russians,  and  many  others;  yet  it  is  rela- 
tiveley  more  EXCITABLE,  as  evinced  by  the  greater  harshness, 
hatred,  and  severity  of  temper,  in  the  former  than  latter ;  and 


68  ANIMAL    FOOD 

accordingly  thjt  former  eat  by  far  the  greatest  proportion  o* 
meat.  This  fact  in  man  corresponds  with  the  increased 
ferocity  of  dogs  when  fed  on  flesh 37.  Behold  how  all  the 
different  facts  and  bearings  of  this  great  truth  correspond  with 
all  the  others — an  irrefutable  evidence  of  its  truth.  "But,"  it 
is  contended; 

39.     "MEAT  GIVES  FORCE  AND  STRENGTH." 

BRUTE  force  it  does,  but  of  this  man  has  relatively  too 
much  already,  as  we  shall  soon  show.  •  "  Would  you  then,"  it 
is  farther  objected,  "  have  us  abstain  from  flesh,  and  thus 
become  as  pusillanimous  as  the  Hindoos  ?"  But  are  the  meat- 
eating  Indian  and  Laplander  so  VERY  forcible  ?  What  have 
they  ever  accomplished — what  triumphs  ever  achieved  other 
than  with  the  scalping-knife  and  tomahawk  ?  If  meat  alone 
gives  force,  one  Indian  would  master  two  "  pale- faces ;" 
whereas,  one  white  man  is  equal  to  a  score  of  red  ones. 
The  former  eat  less  meat,  yet,  under  every  disadvantage, 
have  driven  the  latter  back  and  back  again,  farther  and  still 
farther  upon  the  setting  sun,  till  they  bid  fair — foul  ? — to 
exterminate  his  race.  Or  is  the  Indian  character  in  itself  so 
VERY  desirable  ?  Rather,  is  it  not,  in  common  with  that  of  all 
flesh-eaters,  hateful  ?  Or  are  the  New  Zealanders  so  very 
forcible,  at  least  for  GOOD  ?  Or  the  Chinese  so  pusillanimous, 
except  in  war  ?  If  China  is  not  forcible  in  butchery,  human 
included,  yet  is  she  wanting  in  any  of  the  essential  elements 
of  energy  ?  Look  at  her  canals,  her  commerce,  and  her  pro- 
ducts, and  to  call  her  inefficient  is  to  misapply  terms.  Knock 
off  those  shackles  of  antiquity  which  bind  her  hand  and  foot 
to  past  ages,  and  she  would  soon  vie  with  our  own  nation  in 
energy  and  productiveness.  Or  hamper  us  with  fetters  of 
more  than  three  thousand  years,  and  see  how  every  species  of 
public  and  private  enterprise  would  be  held  stationary  as  in  a 
vice.  Or  feed  all  China  on  meat,  and  you  would  undoubtedly 
cripple  instead  of  incite.  You  might,  indeed,  render  the 
masses  too  turbulent  to  submit  to  authority — might  engender 
private  animosities  and  foment  public  rebellions ;  and  by  thus 
changing  their  government  and  laws,  promote  ultimate 


GIVES    BRUTE    FORCE.  69 

energy ;  yet  this  effect  would  be  incidental,  not  legitimate. 
The  turbulence  of  our  ancestors,  fostered  by  flesh-eating,  has 
so  changed  the  governments  and  institutions  of  antiquity  as  to 
have  ultimately  substituted  our  own  instead  of  their  druidical, 
narrow,  and  restrictive ;  and  we  owe  our  energy  to  thea* 
governmental  changes,  not  directly  to  meat. 

Admitted  that  meat  gives  force,  yet  mark  the  KIND  of  force 
it  imparts.  Analogous  to  that  of  the  tiger  and  wolf — force  to 
dare  and  KILL  rather  than  to  do.  Does  the  lion  ACCOMPLISH 
so  much  more  than  the  horse  ?  Or  is  the  wild  bull  so  extra 
tame  or  feeble  ?  Do  not  both  the  strongest  and  the  fleetest  of 
animals  live  on  vegetables  ?  The  elephant  and  rhinoceros  eat  no 
meat,  yet  their  muscular  power  and  endurance  far  transcend 
those  of  the  lion  and  tiger.  The  deer,  antelope,  and  gazelle, 
feed  on  herbage,  yet  distance  all  flesh-eating  animals  in  the 
open  chase.  What  flesh-eater  is  more  sprightly  and  nimble 
than  the  gazelle  and  chamois  ?  Since,  therefore,  the  fleetest 
and  the  strongest  of  animals  eat  no  meat,  must  man  eat  it  or 
be  weak  or  sluggish  ?  Or  to  apply  this  principle  directly  to 
man  :  Is  the  Highland  Scotchman,  who  was  brught  up  on  oat- 
meal, and  tasted  meat  no  oftener  than  the  moon  quartered,  so 
very  inefficient  ?  Are  the  potatoe-fed  Irish  weak  ?  Can  our  own 
beef-gourmands  dig  or  carry  more  ?  Try,  ye  meat  advocates. 
The  rice-fed  Chinese  will  outdo  "John  Bull"  and  "Uncle 
Sam,"  except  in  shedding  blood.  So  will  the  herbiverous 
inhabitants  of  he  Pacific  isles.  But  if  man's  CONSTITUTION 
demanded  meat,  those  who  fulfilled  this  ordinance  of  their 
natures,  would  far  exceed  those  who  do  not ;  whereas  the  fact 
is  the  reverse,  and  this  proves  a  meat  diet  to  be  unnecessary 
to  strength. 

Not  that  animal  food  does  not  develop  muscular  strength. 
Carnivorous  animals  are  strong,  but  herbfverous  are  still 
stronger,  yet  have  less  propensity.  Hence,  since  meat  devel- 
ops propensity37,  yet  is  not  necessary  to  either  strength  or 
force — since  it  animalizes  and  depraves,  and  thus  does  a  posi- 
tive damage  but  not  a  necessary  good — why  injure  ourselves 
by  its  consumption  ? 


70  ANIMA:,  FOOD 

40.       ISOLATED    FACTS 

Candid  reader,  do  these  views  require  additional  proof?  A.re 
they  not  in  accordance  with  nature  ?  Is  not  their  sweep  so 
extensive,  and  their  bearing  so  unequivocal,  as  to  demand  the 
assent  of  every  lover  of  truth  ?  Can  proof  be  more  extensive 
or  diversified  ?  Not  that  we  have  adduced  it  all,  but  does  rea- 
son demand  more  ?  Yet,  partly  for  the  encouragement  of  the 
wavering,  and  partly  to  finish  out  our  subject,  on  descending 
from  these  ranges  of  facts  to  isolated  cases,  we  find  similar 
results.  Take,  first,  a  chapter  in  the  author's  history.  In  1835, 
he  changed  his  diet  from  mixed  to  exclusively  farinaceous. 
Previous  to  this,  his  health  was  in  a  decline,  and  he  fast 
verging  towards  consumption.  For  a  year  or  more  following, 
he  never  tasted  meat,  and  never  enjoyed  as  good  health  before 
or  since.  Nor  at  any  other  period  of  his  life  could  he  ever 
perform  as  much  mental  labor,  or,  considering  all  the  circum- 
stances, write  as  vigorously,  as  at  that  period.  But  the  great 
difficulty  of  obtaining  the  diet  he  wanted,  almost  compelled 
him,  in  his  peregrinations,  to  eat  some  meat,  or  else  what  he 
regarded  as  worse.  And  he  exceedingly  regrets  a  partial  de- 
cline, though  for  twelve  years  his  consumption  of  meat  has 
been  comparatively  trifling ;  and  he  designs  to  render  it  still 
less,  if  not  to  suppress  it  altogether ;  or  if  he  should  occasion- 
ally eat  a  little,  it  will  not  be  from  choice,  but  because  rather 
this  than  worse. 

The  experience  of  R.  Goss  is  still  more  in  point,  because 
more  thorough.  He  has  abstained  wholly  from  flesh  for  eleven 
years,  and  finds  grievous  maladies  to  which  he  was  before 
subject,  now  wholly  removed,  his  strength  greatly  increased, 
and  state  of  mind  far  more  happy.  He  has  walked — or  rather 
run — EIGHTEEN 'MILES  IN  THREE  SUCCESSIVE  HOURS  and  five 
minutes,  and  finds  no  trouble  in  walking  fifty  miles  per  day. 

Take  Sylvester  Graham.  Produce  the  man  of  his  age — 
over  fifty  years — as  sprightly  and  young  in  constitution  as  he 
is.  Yet  he  was  once  a  confirmed  invalid,  and  driven  to  a  fari- 
naceous diet  as  his  only  salvation  from  impending  death.  The 
author  has  never  seen  any  one  at  any  age  more  youthful  and 


NOT    NECESSARY    TO    STRENGTH.  71 

elastic.  And  he  grows  younger  in  constitution  as  he  becomes 
older  in  years.  Behold  the  change !  See  whether  another 
generation  does  not  see  him  still  young  in  all  the  essential 
attributes  of  youth. 

But  he  is  accused  of  eating  flesh.  Thus  saith  floating  ru- 
mor, but  where  is  the  PROOF  ?  If  he  ate  it,  some  one  would 
step  forward  with  names,  dates,  and  places.  We  live  in  a 
tattling  and  calumniating  age— one  that  would  slander  an  an- 
gel. Besides,  Graham  is  an  honest  man,  and  would  not  betray 
his  friends  or  belie  his  pretensions.  Thus  saith  his  phrenology, 
his  physiognomy,  and  his  general  conduct.  I  do  not  believe 
the  charge. 

Many  of  his  stanch  disciples  are  living  witnesses  that  meat 
is,not  necessary  to  health  and  strength.  The  finest  children 
the  author  has  ever  seen — and  he  has  examined  professionally, 
and  therefore  minutely,  many  thousands — have  never  tasted 
flesh.  Look  at  Graham's  farinaceous  boy.  But  his  flesh- 
eating  girl,  whose  regimen  her  mother  insisted  on  controlling, 
is  in  her  grave.  I  wish  my  own  children  had  never  tasted, 
and  would  never  taste,  a  mouthful  of  meat.  Increased  health, 
efficiency,  talents,  virtue,  and  happiness,  would  undoubtedly 
be  the  result.  But  for  the  fact  that  my  table  is  set  for  others 
than  my  own  wife  and  children,  it  would  never  be  furnished 
with  meat — so  strong  are  my  convictions  against  its  utility. 
Every  thorough  vegetable  experimenter  of  whom  the  author 
has  inquired — and  they  are  many — has  borne  witness  to  the 
beneficial  effects  of  the  change  from  flesh  to  vegetables.  A 
few  who  have  half  tried,  have  condemned  it  as  injurious  ;  yet 
such  have  not  supplied  the  place  of  meat  with  the  KINDS  of 
vegetables  required  as  substitutes.  Meat  is  also  a  powerful 
tonic,  and  the  reaction  consequent  on  taking  away  this  artifi- 
cial stimulant  affected  them  much  as  the  leaving  off*  ardent 
spirits,  or  tobacco,  or  opium,  affects  those  accustomed  to  them  ; 
and  they  mistook  the  consequent  prostration  for  permanent 
debility,  whereas  in  due  time  nature  would  have  rallied,  and 
they  been  the  more  vigorous  from  abating  the  unnatural  stim- 
ulant. But  more  on  substitutes  for  meat  when  we  come  to 
treat  of  animal  heat. 


72  ANIMAL    FOOD 

To  continue  with  our  facts.  Determined  to  investigate  this 
whole  subject  of  flesh-eating  to  the  bottom,  and  to  subject  the 
dietetic  principles  of  this  work  to  the  tribunal  of  facts,  tried 
under  all  sorts  of  circumstances,  besides  inquiring  by  letter  as 
well  as  verbally,  of  all  whose  experience  he  thought  could 
shed  any  light  over  this  mooted  subject,  and  also  reading 
somewhat  extensively,  he  received  the  following  answer  to  one 
of  his  inquiries  concerning  the 

41.       EXPERIENCE    OF    THE    BIBLE    CHRISTIANS, 

A  religious  sect,  one  branch  of  which  resides  in  Philadel 
phia,  and  other  branches  in  the  old  country,  whose  creed 
interdicts  flesh  of  every  description,  and  some  of  whose 
ancestors,  for  several  generations,  have  wholly  eschewed  .its 
use.  It  runs  thus  : — 

Kensington,  Philadelphia,  February  20$,  1846. 
MR.  FOWLER: 

MY  DEAR  SIR — Yours  of  the  16th  instant  came  duly  to  hand,  and 
I  hasten,  with  great  pleasure,  to  give  you  whatever  information  I 
can,  respecting  the  physical  effects  of  vegetable  diet  on  human  life, 
and  particularly  on  the  lives  of  myself  and  those  who  constitute  the 
little  religious  community  over  whom  Providence  has  placed  me  as 
their  spiritual  pastor. 

The  name  by  which  we  are  known  as  a  religious  society,  is  that 
of  BIBLE  CHRISTIANS.  One  of  the  peculiar  doctrines  of  our  denomi- 
nation is,  that  "  Eating  the  flesh  of  animals  is  a  violation  of  the  first 
dietetic  law,  given  to  mankind  by  the  Creator,  as  a  guide  to  moral 
and  physical  health."  His  laws  are,  like  Himself,  "The  same 
yesterday,  to-day,  and  forever."  To  transgress  His  laws  by  killing 
animals  as  food,  we  consider  sinful,  and  equally  so  to  drink  wine, 
spirits,  or  any  beverage  having  the  power  to  intoxicate.  In  these 
doctrines  you  will  perceive  we  fully  concur  with  the  apostle ;  "  It  is 
good  neither  to  eat  flesh  nor  to  drink  wine."  So  far  as  I  am  individ- 
ually concerned,  I  may  be  permitted  to  add,  that  since  September, 
1509,  I  have  so  strictly  conformed  to  these  principles,  that  I  have 
not  even  once  tasted  of  either  fish,  or  flesh,  or  fowl ;  nor  drank  any- 
thing intoxicating. 

Our  little  religious  society  had  its  commencement  in  Philadel- 
phia, in  the  year  1817,  and  consisted,  at  that  time,  of  only  seven  or 
eight  members.  By  an  act  of  incorporation,  granted  by  the  Legisla- 


EXPERIENCE    OF    THE    BIBLE    CHRISTIANS.  73 

ture  of  the  Commonwealth  of  Pennsylvania  in  1830,  it  is  ordained 
that  '•'  none  can  be  members  of  the  Bible  Christian  Church  but 
those  who  conform  to  the  rules,  regulations,  and  discipline  of  said 
Church ;  which  rules  require  abstinence  from  animal  food,  spiritu- 
ous and  intoxicating  liquors,  initiation  by  Baptism,  and  partaking  of 
the  sacrament  or  Eucharist."  Our  present  number  of  members, 
according  to  the  above  criterion  of  membership,  is  seventy.  Besides 
these,  there  are  about  thirty  others,  more  or  less  connected  with 
us,  who  abstain  from  animal  food  and  intoxicating  drinks,  but  are  not 
yet  considered  full  members.  Of  our  members  there  are — 

2  who  have  lived  on  the  vegetable  system  37  years,  now 

aged  between         -  70  and  80 

4  do  do  do  do  60  and  70 

6  do  do  do  do  50  and  60 

,7  do  do  from  20  to  30  years,  40  and  50 

21  who  have  never  eaten  animal  food  nor  drank  anything 

intoxicating,  25  and  40 

30  do  do  do       f         do  under  25 

During  the  period  between  1817  and  1846,  ten  persons  have,  at 
different  times,  fallen  away  from  our  principles,  and  returned  to 
flesh-eating,  and  twelve  have  died ;  four  of  these  were  children : 
of  the  others — 


1  was  age 

d  72  years,  abstained  from  flesh,    etc., 

36  1  years. 

1 

do 

65 

do 

do 

30 

do 

1 

do 

64 

do 

do 

30 

do 

1 

do 

63 

do. 

do 

25 

do 

1 

do 

59 

do 

do 

20 

do 

1 

do 

58 

do 

do 

29 

do 

1 
1 

do 
do 

39 

36 

do 
do 

do 
do 

>  each 

10 

do 

The  two  last  died  of  puerperal  fever. 

The  ability  of  our  people  to  work,  (for  we  all  belong  to  the 
working  class,  and  earn  our  bread  by  the  sweat  of  our  brow,)  is 
fully  equal  to  the  flesh-eating  community  among  whom  we  live, 
and  in  several  instances  considerably  superior.  Experience  and 
observation  have  convinced  us  that  neither  flesh  nor  intoxicating 
liquors  are  essential  to  physica.  strength,  or  to  the  long  continued 
endurance  of  laborious  exertions.  In  a  mental  point  of  view,  it  is 
generally  conceded  that  a  vegetable  and  farinaceous  diet  is  more 
favorable  to  the  development  of  the  intellectual  and  moral  faculties 
than  a  flesh  or  mixed  diet. 
7 


74  ANIMAL   FOOD 

When  the  yellow  fever  broke  out  at  the  foot  of  Market  street 
in  the  autumn  of  1818,  my  residence  was  in  the  immediate  vicinity 
of  the  infected  district,  namely,  in  Front  near  Market  street. 
There  I  continued  with  my  family",  while  most  of  our  neighbors 
fled  from  the  site  for  fear  of  being  affected  with  that  dreaded  malady ; 
yet  we  all  continued  to  enjoy  excellent  health.  The  year  following 
our  experience  was  similar.  During  the  period  of  the  cholera,  I 
am  not  aware  that  any  of  our  members  were  in  the  least  affected  by 
that  disorder.  My  duties  as  a  minister  frequently  led  me  to  the 
bedside  of  the  sick  and  dying  poor,  and  often  to  perform  the  last 
obsequies  over  the  dead ;  yet  amidst  all  these  painful  duties,  the 
same  kind  and  merciful  Providence  which  "tempers  the  winds  to 
the  shorn  lamb,"  protected  and  preserved  me  in  the  enjoyment  of 
uninterrupted  health.  You  doubtless  remember  there  were  many 
conflicting  rumors  of  opinions  among  eminent  physicans  and  others, 
about  the  propriety  of  avoiding  vegetables  ana  fruits  during  the 
continuance  of  the  epidemic.  I  have  no  knowledge  that  any  of  our 
members  made  the  least  alteration  in  their  accustomed  mode  of 
diet  during  that  time,  and  yet  they  all  escaped  suffering  from  that 
fatal  contagion.  In  my  own  family,  vegetables  and  fruits  were  as 
freely  used  as  in  former  seasons,  without  suffering  any  incon- 
venience. 

In  adopting  a  vegetable  diet,  and  abstinence  from  inebriating 
drinks,  our  denomination  was  actuated  by  religious  principle.  We 
believe  it  to  be  wrong  to  take  animal  life  for  the  purpose  of  satis- 
fying appetite.  This  faith  is  founded  on  the  testimony  of  the  Bible, 
and  when  we  took  this  advance  we  knew  comparatively  little  of  the 
laws  of  Physiology.  We  thought  that  kind  of  knowledge  belonged 
exclusively  to  the  province  of  the  physician.  We  have  since 
learned  otherwise,  and  the  more  we  have  studied  Physiology  and 
Phrenology  and  become  familiar  with  their  laws,  in  order  to  enjoy 
health  and  improve  our  race,  the  more  perfectly  have  we  been 
favored  with  that  invaluable  blessing. 

I  regret  that  it  is  not  in  my  power,  at  present,  to  give  you  any 
satisfactory  information  respecting  the  number  of  our  denomination 
in  England,  or  the  nature  of  their  experience.  In  Manchester  there 
are  three  churches,  in  which  these  views  of  dietetics  are  publicly 
inculcated  as  a  religious  duty  ;  and  I  know  many  persons  in  various 
parts  of  the  kingdom  who  are  advocates  and  friends  of  a  vegetable 
diet.  I  will  take  pleasure  in  forwarding  your  interrogatories  to 
some  of  my  friends  there,  who,  I  am  persuaded,  will  be  happy  in 
furnishing  every  information  in  their  power. 


BLUNTS   MORAL    SENTIMENT.  75 

You  ask  for  information  on  the  subject  of  works  advocating  the 
vegetable  system  of  diet.  I  presume  you  are  in  possession  of 
whatever  is  valuable  from  the  American  press — Graham,  Alcott, 
Bell,  etc.,  etc.  I  have  already  sent  you  my  address,  etc.,  and  two 
or  three  other  pamphlets.  I  forward  you  with  this,  "  A.  System 
of  Vegetable  Cookery,  etc.,"  by  my  friend  in  Manchester,  Rev, 
Dr.  Scholefield.  The  introduction  may  probably  be  useful  to  you. 
In  a  letter  received  from  the  Doctor,  he  informs  me  that  a  very 
raseful  work  is  just  issued  from  the  London  press,  entitle  I,  "Fruits 
and  Farinacea  the  proper  food  of  Man  ;  being  an  attempt  to  prove 
from  History,  Anatomy,  Physiology,  and  Chemistiy,  that  the 
original,  natural,  and  best  diet  of  man  is  derived  from  tho  vegetable 
kingdom:"  London,  published  by  John  Churchill,  Prim  ess  street, 
Soho.  8vo.  Price  in  cloth  9s.  I  have  not  yet  seen  the  work. 
There  is  also  a  work  on  "  Water-Cure,"  which  has  lately  appeared 
in  England,  that  goes  strongly  against  flesh.  I  know  of  no  other 
recent  publications  of  the  kind  you  are  seeking. 

With  great  respect,  I  remain, 

My  dear  sir,  yours,  truly, 

To  O.  S.  FOWLER,  Esq.  WILLIAM  METCALFE. 

The  author  saw  one  of  this  sect  in  1839,  who  was  reputed 
to  be  the  strongest  man  in  Philadelphia.  Inquire,  reader,  at 
the  shrine  of  universal  fact,  as  the  author  has  done,  and  you 
will  find  the  response,  whether  coming  from  masses  or  indi- 
viduals, to  accord  with  this  testimony.  When  we  see  that  the 
strongest,  the  nimblest,  and  the  swiftest  of  animals,  attain  their 
speed  and  power  on  vegetables  ;  that  man  can  have  all  the 
force,  strength,  and  endurance  required,  without  flesh  as  well 
as  with  it ;  that  flesh  heats  up  the  passions — already  many  fold 
too  strong — and  that  abstainers  are  the  happier  without  than 
with,  I  repeat,  why  impair  and  debase  the  man  by  eating  the 
animal  ? 

42.       ANIMAL    FOOD    BLUNTS    MORAL    SENTIMENT. 

For  what  could  the  lion,  or  tiger,  or  butcher  do  \v  ith  active 
Benevolence  or  Conscientiousness  1  Sympathy  for  their  poor 
victim  would  effectually  prevent  its  slaughter — we  uld  close 
the  jaws  of  the  one,  and  stay  the  uplifted  knife  of  ihe  other. 
Large  moral  organs  in  carnivorous  animals  would  starve 


76  ANIMAL    FOOD 

them,  and  in  man,  unless  stifled  or  perverted,  would  interdict 
all  destruction  of  life  for  food.  What  well-organized  child 
ever  beheld  an  animal  slaughtered  for  the  first  time,  without 
almost  an  agony  of  sympathy  ?  Or  can  any  highly  benevo- 
lent adult,  especially  female,  endure  the  distressing  sight,  un- 
less accustomed  to  it  ?  How  tender-hearted  woman  shudders 
thereat,  and  shrinks  therefrom  !  Yet  she  is  not  unduly  sym- 
pathetic. This  alone  brands  animal  butchery  as  wicked, 
because  it  necessarily  violates  those  higher  moral  senti- 
ments which  constitute  no  inconsiderable  portion  of  female 
perfection. 

Condensed,  the  argument  is  this :  Such  slaughter  blunts 

those  finer  moral  feelings  which  should  reign  supreme , 

and  therefore  violates  a  fundamental  law  of  man's  nature. 
Of  course,  all  the  legitimate  consequences  of  such  violation 
occasion  pain7.  Animal  food  is  therefore  injurious,  because 
it  can  be  procured  only  by  violating  man's  moral  constitution. 
Is  God  indeed  so  short-sighted  as  to  render  animal  slaughter 
— in  necessary  conflict  with  that  exalted  moral  sentiment,  Be- 
nevolence— essential  to  human  perfection  ?  Can  any  good 
come  out  of  violated  law  ?  Especially  of  the  highest  order 
of  laws — the  moral  ?  Is  man  indeed  COMPELLED  to  violate  this 
moral  law,  in  order  to  perfect  his  nature  ?  Must  he  break  one 
law  to  fulfil  another  ?  Do  laws  thus  clash  ?  Is  nature  thus  in 
conflict  with  her  own  self? 

"  But  brute  kills  brute.  Then  why  not  man  kill  beast  ? 
Has  God  denied  to  us  a  privilege  he  accords  to  brutes  ?"  ob- 
jects one.  As  those  coarsely  organized,  can  do  many  things 
which  excite  disgust  and  repugnance  in  those  keenly  sensi- 
tive and  fine-feeling,  so  brutes  can  do  what  would  shock  the 
keener  susceptibilities  of  humanity.  Beasts  of  prey  have  lit- 
tie  or  no  Benevolence  to  violate,  and  hence  violate  none  when 
they  slay  to  eat — but  fulfil  a  law.  If  man  had  no  sympathy 
for  distress — and  what  would  he  be  better  than  beast  without  it 
— he,  too,  might  prey  upon  brute  and  man  ;  but  he  has,  and 
therefore  must  not  abuse  it  by  butchering  inoffensive  animals. 

Volume  two  will  show  that  no  one  faculty  should  ever  be 
BO  exercised  as  to  clash  wi'h  the  normal  function  of  any  other  • 


BLUNTS    MORAL    SENTIMENT.  77 

because  such  conflict  necessarily  occasions  great  mental  an- 
guish,  and  violates  a  moral  law.  Hence,  since  the  exercise 
of  Destructiveness  in  slaughtering  animals  .necessarily  pains 
active  Benevolence,  such  slaughter  is,  of  course,  wicked. 
Habit  may  indeed  harden  the  butcher's  Benevolence,  till  it 
ceases  to  remonstrate ;  yet  this  leaves  him  just  so  far  practi. 
cally  destitute  of  it,  and  therefore  imperfect  by  the  loss  of  an 
essential  mental  element,  and  sinful  in  omitting  to  exercise  a 
faculty  which  his  mental  constitution  imperiously  demanded 
him  to  exercise.  Nor  is  it  possible  to  gainsay  or  resist  this 
anti-killing  argument. 

"  But  the  flesh-EATER  does  not  kill,  and  therefore  cannot  in 
cur  this  blunting  of  the  moral  sentiments,"  objects  one.  Ex- 
actly the  converse.  As  the  "  bloody  Mary"  did  not  bind  the 
martyrs,  nor  light  the  fires  of  Smithfield,  yet  signed  their 
death-warrants,  and  as  Robespierre  only  ORDERED  the  behead- 
ing of  the  victims  of  the  French  revolution,  yet  both  were 
the  virtual  executioners ;  so  the  flesh-EATER  is  the  real  slaugh- 
terer, because  he  gives  the  ORDER.  The  butcher  is  to  the 
slaughtered  what  the  torch-carrier  was  to  the  martyrdom  of 
John  Rogers,  or  the  hired  servants  employed  to  ply  the  guil- 
lotine are  to  the  execution.  All  these  are  only  the  hired 
AGENTS,  whereas  the  responsibility  falls  mainly  on  those  who 
give  the  ORDER,  not  who  execute  it  under  authority.  The 
butcher  kills  mainly  by  proxy.  The  CONSUMER  is  the  virtual 
butcher.  On  him  the  chief  responsibility  rests ;  because  he 
both  requires  the.  slaughter  itself,  and  directs  its  kind,  time, 
quantity,  manner — every  thing.  Unless  he  demanded,  the- 
poor  beast  would  not  bleed.  He  is  the  "  Mary"  and  the 
"  Robespierre"  of  the  slaughter-house ;  because  every  pound 
of  flesh  he  eats  increases  the  demand,  and  thus  becomes  a 
virtual  death-warrant  issued  against  helpless  brutes. 

Not  that  the  butcher  is  wholly  absolved.  He  is  on  a  foot- 
ing with  the  vender  of  intoxicating  drinks — is  a  VOLUNTARY 
doer  of  wr^ng.  As  when  two  participate  in  murder,  the 
guilt  is  doubled,  not  divided,  so  the  guilt  of  the  consumer  does 
not  lessen  the  sin  of  the  butcher.  Both  violate  nature's 
laws,  and  must  abide  their  penalties ; — the  latter  in  the  de- 
7* 


78  ANIMAL    FOOD 

terioration  of  his  finer  moral  sensibilities,  and  the  former  in  the 
injury  a  ilesh  diet  necessarily  induces3742.  Butchers  may  be 
obliging,  friendly,  talented,  and  much  more  that  is  good  yet 
their  daily  occupation  COMPELS  them  to  become  practically  in. 
human.*  We  thus  censure  their  occupation  with  reluctance, 
yet  truth  is  "no  respecter  of  persons,"  nor  should  its  expo- 
nents teir.porfze. 

To  kill  animals,  also  violates  Conscientiousness.  The  RIGHT 
to  life  is  ihe  highest  of  all  rights,  and  inviolable ;  yet  is  tram- 
pled  undor  foot  by  slaughter.  What  RIGHT  has  man  to  snatch, 
even  from  brutes,  a  prerogative  so  inalienable  ?  Their  deed  to 
life  is  derived  from  nature,  and  should  be  taken  only  by  its 
Giver. 

"But,"  it  is  objected,  "brutes  were  made  to  SERVE  man." 
Granted  ;  but  all  admit  that  man  has  no  right  to  inflict  wanton 
cruelty  on  brutes — then  how  much  less  to  perpetrate  this  high- 
est possible  cruelty  ? 

"  But  man  renders  them  more  happy  in  feeding  and  hous- 
ing them  during  their  life,  than  miserable  in  their  death ;" 
says  anc  ther.  One  would  be  required  to  feed  and  house  me 
a  long  time,  and  render  me  superlatively  happy  into  the  bar- 
gain, before  I  should  think  him  entitled  to  cut  off  my  head  43 ; 
and  if  animals  suffer  less  in  death,  they  also  enjoy  less  in  life, 
BO  that  tie  PROPORTION  is  thus  preserved. 

*  Henct!  the  propriety  of  that  law  which,  in  some  places,  excludes 
them  from  being  jurymen,  on  trials  which  involve  life  and  death. 

t   43.       SLAUGHTER-HOUSE    CRUELTIES. 

t  The  text  condemns,  in  the  strongest  manner,  those  unheard-of  cruel- 
ties perpetrated  on  animals  while  killing  them,  ia  order  to  render  theii 
meat  less  bloody,  and  more  tender.  To  keep  the  feet  of  calves  and 
sheep  tied  together,  in  the  most  painfnl  posture  possible — tumble  them 
into  carts  on  top  of  one  another — bang  them  about  as  if  they  were  so 
many  boxes  and  barrels — keep  tbem  for  days  together  without  a  morsel 
of  food,  and  then,  after  all  this  living  death,  to  hang  them  up  by  the  hind 
feet,  puncture  a  vein  in  the  neck,  and  let  them  hang  in  this  excruciating 
torture,  fiint  from  loss  of  blood  and  struggling  for  life,  yet  enduring  all 
the  agonies  of  death,  for  six  or  eight  hours; — meanwhile  pelting  them,  to 
beat  out  the  blood  and  render  the  meat  tender,  with  might  and  mam, 
•o  that  every  blow  extorts  a  horrid  groan,  till  tardy  deatn  at  length  ends 


SUBJECTS    MORALITY    TO    PROPENSIl  f.  79 

44.       A    FLESH    DIET    SUBJECTS    MORALITY    TO    PROPENSITY 

We  have  already  seen,  first,  that  animal  food  unduly  stirnu- 
lates  animal  propensity37,  and  secondly,  that  it  blunts  the 
moral  sentiments42,  exactly  the  converse  of  what  man's  per- 
fection  and  happiness  require.  He  is  almost  all  propensity 
now — 402  544.  His  animality  vastly  preponderates  over  his  mo- 
rality and  intellectuality  ;  whereas,  the  governing  law  of  both 
virtue  and  enjoyment  requires  the  supremacy  of  the  latter. 
Since  meat  constitutionally  tends  to  enlarge  and  inflame  pro- 
pensity37, and  since  this  is  the  very  converse  of  what  human 
happiness  and  perfection  require,  therefore  a  flesh  diet  is 
wrong.  How  despicable  the  disposition  of  the  tiger,  hyena, 
and  shark  !  Does  man  require  to  approximate  himself  thereto  ? 
Would  becoming  more  tiger-like  render  humanity  more  per- 
fect ?  More  diabolical,  rather !  Is  predominant  propensity 
human  glory  and  happiness  ?  Would  you  have  your  children 
become  more  turbulent,  quarrelsome,  fierce,  revengeful,  hating, 
and  hateful — more  like  beasts  of  prey  1  Then  give  them 
meat.  Would  you  riot  rather  render  them  more  lamb-like, 
and  heavenly-dispositioned  ?  Then  feed  them  on  a  vegetable 
diet32. 

We  all  justly  complain  of  the  evils  of  society.  The  best 
of  us  are  bad  and  depraved  enough,  and  the  worst  are  almost 
devils  incarnate.  What  but  PERVERTED  PROPENSITY  causes 
the  aggravated  evils  under  which  society  groans?  In  what 
else  does  depravity  consist  ?  Or  how  can  human  wickedness 
and  wo  be  obviated,  except  by  subjugating  and  purifying  pro- 
pensity by  intellect  and  moral  sentiment  ?  Volume  two  DEMON- 

their  sufferings  with  their  lives — and  all  perpetrated  on  helpless,  unof- 
fending brutes — is  a  little  worse  than  anything  else  except  human  mur- 
der ;  yet,  is  but  the  legitimate  fruits  of  flesh-eating.  Hear  the  piteous 
wail  of  these  wretched  animals,  on  their  passage  from  the  farmyard  to 
the  slaughter-house;  see  their  upturned  eyes  rolling  in  agony;  witness 
the  desperate  struggles,  and  hear  the  terrible  bellowings  of  the  frantic 
bullock  who  apprehends  his  fate,  as  he  is  drawn  up  to  the  fatal  bull-ring ; 
or  even  look  at  the  awful  expression  of  ah1  amputated  heads,  as  seen  in 
market,  or  carted  through  the  streets,  and  then  say  wrhether  the  slaugh- 
tering of  animals  is  not  a  perfect  OUTRAGE  on  every  feeling  of  humanity-— 
every  sentiment  of  right! 


ANIMAL   FOOD. 

STRATES  that  virtue  and  happiness  consist  mainly  in  Ihia 
ascendency  of  the  higher  faculties  over  the  lower,  and  depra- 
vity and  mental  suffering  in  predominant  and  perverted  pro- 
pensity. These  conditions  of  perfection  and  happiness  on  the 
one  hand,  and  of  sin  and  misery  on  the  other,  are  FUNDAMEN- 
TAL. Hence,  since  animal  food  necessarily  developes  and  per- 
verts propensity37,  but  blunts  moral  sentiment42,  therefore  man 
should  not  sensualize  his  nature  by  eating  flesh.  He  who 
does,  deteriorates  his  heaven-bestowed  endowments,  and  plants 
thorns  in  the  pillow  of  enjoyment. 

45.       ANIMAL    ?OOD    SHORTENS    AND    ENFEEBLES    LIFE. 

A  flesh  diet  is  confessedly  a  powerful,  though  unnatural 
stimulant,  and,  like  alcohol,  excites  and  inflames,  only  prema- 
maturely  to  exhaust.  This  is  its  CONSTITUTIONAL  effect — NE- 
CESSARY, not  accidental.  It  therefore  hurries  its  participants 
through  life,  and  OUT  of  life,  in  true  hot-house  style.  All  the 
mental  and  physical  functions  of  vegetable  eaters  proceed  with 
little  friction,  and  as  though  well  oiled,  so  as  to  run  smoothly 
and  wear  but  little,  while  flesh  eating  renders  them  hot  and 
grating,  as  though  the  axles  of  life  ran  on  gravel-stones,  and 
therefore  wear  out  rapidly.  Hence,  very  aged  people  will 
generally  be  found  to  have  eaten  but  little  meat  through  life, 
and  to  have  began  to  eat  that  little  after  their  constitutions  had 
become  fully  matured.  The  herb-eating  elephant  is  reputed 
to  live  nearly  twice  as  long  as  the  flesh-eating  lion — the  long- 
est liver  of  all  the  carnivora. 

Animal  food  also  irritates  the  stomach  and  fevers  the  blood, 
and  thus  lashes  up  the  brain,  and  goads  on  all  the  passions  to 
excessive  and  turbulent  action.  What  else  causes  that  rest- 
less, dissatisfied,  longing,  high-pressure,  grasping,  envious,  ra- 
pacious selfishness  of  the  public  mind,  now  everywhere  so 
rife  1  Our  fathers  ate  but  little  flesh,  and  were  proportion  ably 
contented  and  pacific.  Flesh  eating  induces  a  faint,  sunken, 
gnawing,  craving,  "  gone"  sensation  at  the  stomach,  akin  to 
that  of  inebriates,  but  wholly  unknown  to  vegetable-eaters ; 
and  this  stomatic  irritation  fevers  the  brain,  especially  the  pas- 
sions  ,  and  engenders  this  tendency  to  public  rapacity  and 


HUMAN    TEETH    NOT   CARNIVOROUS.  81 

vice  just  described ;  and  this  shortens  the  public  life,  on  the 
principle  maintained  by  all  physiologists,  that  turbulent  passions 
hasten  death,  while  contentment  prolongs  life.  Animal  food, 
therefore,  kindles  those  propensities37  which  shorten  life,  and 
blunts  those  moral  virtues42  which  prolong  it.  All  this,  be- 
sides the  many  diseases  its  use  engenders  and  aggravates,  and 
the  cure  of  which  it  retards. 

46.       THE    HUMAN    TEETH    NOT    CARNIVOROUS. 

That  the  forms  of  the  teeth  of  all  animals  coincide  with  their 
natural  dietetic  character,  is  a  universal  truth.  On  this  point 
President  Hitchcock  observes  :  "  From  a  single  bone  or  tooth 
of  any  animal,  its  character,  food,  habits,  haunts,  and  all  the 
circumstances  of  its  existence  may  be  correctly  inferred. 
Comparative  anatomists  have,  from  a  single  tooth,  described, 
and  made  drawings  of  the  extinct  creature  to  which  it  belonged, 
which  have  been  found  to  agree  exactly  with  a  skeleton  after- 
•rards  discovered."  In  short,  that  the  teeth  of  every  animal 

own  and  unknown,  accord  perfectly  with  its  natural  food, 
is  universally  admitted ;  so  that  the  form  of  the  human  teeth 
will  determine  with  absolute  certainty,  the  natural  dietetic 
character  of  man.  If  constituted  to  eat  meat,  the  shape  of 
his  teeth  will  approximate  towards  that  of  lions  and  tigers  — 
his  front  teeth  will  be  small  and  sharp ;  his  eye  teeth,  which 
correspond  with  the  tusks,  hooked  and  enormously  large,  and 
his  back  teeth  sharp,  for  tearing,  instead  of  broad,  for  crush- 
ing ;  whereas,  if  his  natural  diet  is  vegetable  and  farinaceous, 
his  back  teeth  will  be  adapted  to  grinding,  and  his  eye  teeth 
not  longer  than  their  neighbors. 

The  following  engraving  of  the  cow  furnishes  a  standard 
sample  of  herbivorous  teeth,  as  do  those  of  the  tiger  of  the 
teeth  of  the  carnivora. 

And  now,  reader,  see  with  your  own  eyes,  towards  which 
of  these  two  forms  the  teeth  of  man  approximate.  See  for 
yourself,  that  his  front  teeth  are  usually  larger  than  his  eye 
teeth  ;  and  his  double  teeth  flat,  for  grinding,  instead  of  sharp, 
for  tearing.  Not  one  index  of  the  carnivorous  form  is  found 
in  his  teeth.  Now  this  principle  constitutes  a  final  umpire, 


82 


ANIMAL    FOOD 


from  which  there  is  no  philosophical  appeal.     The  absence  of 
daws  has  a  kindred  bearing. 


No.  1.     UNDER  JAW  OF  THE  Cow 


No.  2.     JAWS  OF  THE  TIGER. 


"  But,"  objects  one,  "  man  has  hands  with  which  to  kill,  and 
reason,  to  supply  by  cookery  the  place  of  tusks."  This  is 
sheer  evasion,  and  leaves  this  teeth  argument  wholly  untouched. 
It  simply  tries  to  account  for  the  admitted  omission  of  tusks 
in  man,  but  is  anything  but  a  flesh-eating  argument.  As  far 
as  it  has  the  least  force,  it  tends  to  overthrow  this  principle, 
that  the  teeth  determine  the  natural  character  of  the  food — a 


CARNIVOROUS   AND    GRANIVOROUS    TEETH. 


83 


principle  too  fully  established  by  nature  as  one  of  her  infalli- 
ble landmarks,  to  be  set  aside  by  this  mere  may-be. 

To  render  assurance  doubly  sure,  let  us  contrast  the  teeth 
of  the  monkey  tribes,  with  those  of  man.  We  kn'ow  that  flesh 
is  not  their  natural  diet,  else  they  would  kill  and  eat  animals; 
yet  the  form  of  their  teeth  approximates  toward  that  of  the 
carnivora  much  more  nearly  than  that  of  man's  does.  This 
the  following  engravings  of  the  monkey,  baboon,  and  ourang- 
ourang  fully  evince. 

TEETH    NOT    CARNIVOROUS. 


No.  3.    MONKEY. 


No.  4. 


No.  5.     A  BABOON. 

Since,  therefore,  the  form  of  the  human  teeth  recedes  from 
that  of  the  carnivora  far  more,  even,  than  that  of  the  monkey 
and  ourang-outang  species,  which  are  confessedly  not  carnivo- 
~ous,  therefore,  human  teeth  were  not  made  to  eat  meat.  What 
proof  can  more  conclusively  attest  anything,  than  .this  estab- 
'ishes  the  natural  diet  of  man  to  be  herbivorous  ? 


84 


ANIMAL   FOOD 
TEETH    NOT    CARNIVOROUS. 


NO.  6.       JAGG,  A  MALE  OURANG  OuTANG. 

To  this  conclusion  nearly  every  sound  physiologist  has  been 
impelled,  by  this  dental,  and  other  kindred  arguments.  The 
immortal  Linnaeus  sums  up  this  argument  thus  :  "  Fruits  and 
esculent  vegetables  constitute  his  most  suitable  food."  Cuvier, 
the  highest  authority  on  this  point,  sums  it  up  thus :  "  The 
natural  food  of  man,  therefore,  judging  from  his  structure, 
appears  to  consist  of  fruits,  roots,  and  other  succulent  parts  of 
vegetables ;  and  his  hands  offer  him  every  facility  for  gather- 
ing them.  His  short  and  moderately  strong  jaws  on  the  one 
hand,  and  his  cuspidati  being  equal  in  length  to  the  remaining 
teeth,  and  his  tubercular  molares  on  the  other,  would  allow 
him  neither  to  feed  on  grass  nor  devour  flesh,  were  these  ali- 
ments not  prepared  by  cooking." 

That  distinguished  physiologist,  Professor  Lawrence,  sums 
up  an  elaborate  argument  on  this  point'"as  follows ;  "  The 
teeth  of  man  have  not  the  slightest  resemblance  to  those  of 
carnivorous  animals,  except  that  their  enamel  is  confined  to 
the  external  surface.  He  possesses,  indeed,  teeth  called 
canine,  but  they  do  not  exceed  the  levei  of  the  others,  and 


A    FLESH   DIET    WASTEFUL.  85 

are  obviously  unsuited  for  the  purposes  which  the  corre- 
spending  teeth  execute  in  carnivorous  animals."  "  Whether, 
therefore,  we  consider  the  teeth  and  jaws,  or  the  immediate 
instruments  of  digestion,  the  human  structure  closely  resem- 
bles that  of  the  semise  or  monkeys,  all  of  which,  in  their 
natural  state,  are  completely  frugivorous." 

Dr.  Thomas  Bell,  in  his  "  Physiological  Observations  on  the 
natural  food  of  man,  deduced  from  the  character  of  his  teeth," 
declares,  that  "  every  fact  connected  with  human  organiza- 
tion goes  to  prove,  that  man  was  originally  formed  a  frugi- 
vorous animal."  Cullen  and  Lamb  took  similar  ground,  and 
the  Abbe  Galani  ascribed  all  crimes  to  animal  destruction. 
Pope  protests  against  "kitchens  sprinkled  with  blood,"  and 
insists  that  animal  food  engenders  crime.  Plutarch  tells  us 
that  Pythagoras  ate  no  pork,  and  wondered  what  first  "  led 
man  to  eat  carcass." 

These  conclusions,  however  unpopular,  have  been  extorted 
from  every  rigid  physiologist  who  has  ever  examined  this 
subject ;  and  are  confirmed  by  the  length  of  the  alimentary 
canal,  which  is  short  in  the  carnivora,  long  in  the  herbivora, 
and  long  in  man — about  ten  times  the  length  of  his  body. 

These  two  arguments,  derived  from  the  structure  of  the 
teeth  and  alimentary  canal,  of  themselves  completely  estab- 
lish  the  dietetic  character  of  man  to  be  vegetable  ;  and,  taken 
in  connection  with  those  converging  principles  already  ad- 
duced and  yet  in  reserve361051,  establish  this  anti-flesh-eating 
argument  as  a  fundamental  ordinance  of  nature. 

47.       A    FLESH    DIET    WASTEFUL. 

Our  earth  is  soon  to  be  crowded  with  as  dense  a  popula- 
tion as  its  utmost  powers  of  sustaining  human  life,  combined 
with  the  most  rigid  economy  of  its  necessaries,  will  support. 
This  is  undoubtedly  the  economy  of  nature  —  .  Hence,  since 
a  given  amount  of  land  will  sustain  more  human  beings,  by 
about  ten  to  one,  if  its  products  are  consumed  directly  by 
man,  than  when  fed  to  animals,  and  they  eaten  as  food,  the 
economy  of  nature  could  never  have  been  to  sub/nit  to  this 
THOUSAND  PER  CENT,  loss,  in  order  to  sustain  vegetable-eaters ; 
8 


86  ANIMAL   FOOD 

unless  one  flesh -eater  enjoys  as  much  as  ten  vegetable-eaters1. 
If  the  economy  of  nature  really  requires  and  therefore  favors 
a  flesh  diet,  it  would  have  arranged  things  so  as  to  have  sup- 
ported a  far  greater  number  of  flesh-eaters  than  vegetable- 
eaters  ;  whereas,  since  it  can  sustain  ten  times  as  many  ex- 
clusively vegetable-eaters  as  exclusively  flesh-eaters,  there* 
fore  a  flesh  diet  is  in  opposition  to  nature^s  general  plan  of 
economy. 

To  examine  this  matter  in  the  light  of  facts.  A  given 
amount  of  territory  will  sustain  probably  a  thousand  Anglo- 
Americans  by  agriculture,  to  one  Indian  by  the  chase.  Sup- 
pose the  earth  already  fully  stocked  with  human  beings — 
shall  this  one  Indian  be  allowed  to  engross  what  would  sup- 
port  a  thousand  human  beings  better  than  he  is  sustained  ? 
If  the  Indian  would  be  content  with  this  thousandth  part  of  his 
territory,  let  him  remain ;  but  he  has  no  right  to  interrupt  the 
existence  of  nine  hundred  and  ninety-nine  human  beings,  still 
better  capacitated  to  enjoy  life  than  himself.  Hence  nature 
has  so  ordered  it,  that  the  Indian  shall  recede  before  the  march 
of  civilization,  unless  he  incorporates  himself  with  it ;  be- 
feause  a  vegetable  diet  can  sustain  so  many  more  happy  beings 
the  savage  state.  And  his  punishment  is  just. 

Carnivorous  animals  furnish  another  phase  of  our  argu- 
To  support  one  lion  requires  thousands  of  acres. 
I*ence,  since  nature  abhors  prodigality  as  much  as  vacuums, 
the  ordains  that  the  lion  and  all  beasts  of  prey  shall  retire  at 
ii.'e  approach  of  man ;  that  is,  yield  their  dominion  to  him  as 
fast  as  he  requires  it,  because  he  puts  it  to  so  much  better  use 
than  they.  The  principle  here  stated  is  a  law  of  things. 
Shall,  then,  one  flesh-eater  be  allowed  to  keep  ten  vegetable- 
eaters  from  enjoying  all  the  luxuries  of  life  ?  Or  in  this  pro- 
portion as  far  as  animal  food  is  eaten  ?  Human  happiness  is 
nature's  paramount  object1.  To  this,  numbers  are  indispen- 
sable. Since,  therefore,  ten  vegetable-eaters  can  enjoy  more 
ihan  one  flesh-eater,  they  should  take  the  precedence  ;  and 
flesh-eating  must  decrease  as  population  increases.  In  fact, 
one  of  the  former  enjoys  much  more  than  one  of  the  latter37 

•6  39  40  42  44^        rpj^   waste  Qf    the    necessaries  Qf  ]ife  b       flesh-Cat- 


WASTEFUL.  87 

ing,  and  this  deterioration  of  human  enjoyment,  therefore, 
clash  fundamentally  with  human  numbers  and  happiness, 
which  condemns  a  flesh  diet  as  contrary  to  the  nature  of 
man. 

It  may  here  be  argued,  that  domestic  animals,  as  swine, 
hens,  and  the  like,  are  usually  kept  on  offal  food,  which  man 
does  not  eat,  and  that  the  offals  of  the  farmyard  and  sty  en- 
rich the  land,  and  thus  increase  its  productiveness  more  than 
animals  decrease  its  products.  This  argument  has  some  force 
as  regards  a  very  few  domestic  animals,  but  these  few  would 
not  furnish  a  tithe  of  the  meat  now  consumed,  the  main  bulk 
of  which  is  fattened  on  land  or  vegetables  set  apart  EXPRESSLY 
for  that  purpose.  The  manure  made  by  animals  can  doubt- 
less be  made  quite  as  well  by  piling  up  straw,  weeds,  and 
refuse  vegetation,  and  letting  nature  fit  it  for  enriching  soil — 
and  even  by  spreading  them  directly  upon  the  ground,  which 
is  nature's  method.  Manure  can  also  be  manufactured  by  a 
chemical  process,  without  assistance  from  animals.  Yet  per- 
haps a  few  horses,  cows,  and  hens,  should  be  kept,  and  can  be 
turned  to  excellent  account. 

If  it  be  farther  objected  that  nature  provides  for  the  growth 
of  grass,  especially  in  untillable  marshes,  so  that  cattle  can 
be  kept  without  transgressing  on  the  sustenance  of  man,  the 
reply  is,  that  a  limited  supply  of  cows  may  possibly  be  bene- 
ficial ;  yet  butter  may  be  made  from  the  grass  or  hay  direct, 
just  as  good  as  from  the  cow,  and  four  or  five  hundred  per 
cent,  more  in  quantity  from  the  same  amount  of  provender; 
which  completely  refutes  the  objection.  Another  far  more 
plausible  argument  for  flesh,  is  that  drawn  from  the  necessity 
of  carbon ;  which,  however,  we  shall  wave  till  we  come  to 
treat  of  animal  heat.  It  is  now  submitted,  whether  man's 
physical  or  moral  perfection  requires  a  flesh  diet ;  whether,  in 
fact,  he  is  not  far  better — more  elevated,  and  happy  without 
than  with  it.  If  his  nature  had  been  adapted  to  it,  the  evi- 
dences of  the  consequent  requisition  would  have  been  clear 
and  palpable ;  whereas,  we  find  no  one  law  of  his  being 
which'  requires  it,  but  many  by  which  it  is  interdicted.  Facts, 
principles,  everything,  bear  against  its  ase,  and  nothing  in  its 


88  ANIMAL    FOOD 

favor.  The  cravings  of  perverted  appetite  aside,  say,  intel- 
lectual reader,  does  the  constitution  of  man  require  that  he 
eat  flesh  ?  If  not,  then  we  all  eat  it  at  our  peril.  We  vio- 
late  law,  and  must  surely  suffer  its  righteous  penalties7. 

One  counter  consideration,  however,  drawn  from  man's 
tendency  to  progression,  yet  remains.  The  opening  remarks 
of  volume  two  develope  this  progressive  tendency,  from  pro- 
pensity towards  moral  sentiment.  In  the  earlier  stages  of 
humanity,  propensity  is  indispensable  to  clear  and  subdue  the 
earth  ;  nor  is  the  argument  of  economy  47  particularly  forci- 
ble till  the  earth  has  become  crowded  throughout.  Man  may 
not  yet  be  sufficiently  advanced  to  render  it  imperiously  neces- 
sary for  him  to  abstain  wholly  from  meat,  but  as  such  absti- 
nance  fulfils  his  nature,  his  progress  would  be  greatly  accele 
rated  thereby. 

48.   FRUIT  AND  GRAIN  MORE  PALATABLE  THAN  MEAT. 

Since,  then,  man  should  not  eat  meat,  on  what  shall  he 
subsist  ?  On  FRUITS  AND  FARINACEOUS  FOOD,  MAINLY,  inter- 
spersed with  vegetables,  nuts,  eggs,  and  perhaps  the  products 
of  the  dairy.  The  unbolted  flour  of  wheat,  rye,  oats,  barley, 
corn,  buckwheat,  etc.,  made  into  bread  and  puddings  in  vari- 
ous forms,  and  seasoned  with  fruits  and  sweets,  should  consti- 
tute the  main  bulk  of  his  diet ;  and  to  it  should  be  added^ 
potatoes,  beans,  peas,  beets,  carrots,  turnips,  parsnips,  nuts, 
eggs,  and  perhaps  a  limited  supply  of  milk,  cream,  butter,  and 
cheese,  though  the  utility  of  the  last  will  soon  come  up  for 
discussion.  The  warrant  for  this  dietetic  system  is,  first,  its 
far  greater  PALATABLENESS  than  flesh 33.  That  it  is  relished 
better,  is  evident.  We  always  reserve  the  best  part  of  our 
meals  for  the  dessert — though  we  ought  to  eat  the  best  first — 
and  that  dessert  consists  of  fruit,  pies,  puddings,  and  cakes, 
or  of  oranges,  nuts,  and  raisins,  or  apples,  peaches,  pine- 
apples, or  berries,  and  the  like,  but  rarely  of  meat — never  ex- 
cept in  minced  pies,  from  five-sixths  to  nine-tenths  of  which 
are  composed  of  flour,  apples,  sugar,  cider,  and  spices  ;  so 
that,  flesh  is  almost  excluded  from  our  list  of  desserts,  bec-ause 
less  palatable  than  flour  and  fruit.  We  paraphrase  good 

.    * 


LESS    PALATABLE    THAN    FARINACEOUS.  89 

living  by  "  roast  beef  and  plumb  pudding."  Why  place  tne 
plumb  pudding  last  ?  Because  it  is  best,  and  therefore  brought 
on  AFTER  the  roast  beef;  yet  it  is  composed  of  flour  and  fruit, 
sweetened.  Similar  remarks  apply  to  all  other  kinds  of  pud- 
dings. In  extra  good  dinners,  almonds  and  raisins  are  brought 
on  last,  because  best  of  all.  How  much  better  these  fruit 
and  flour  desserts  relish  than  meats  and  gravies,  even  after 
the  appetite  is  glutted  with  the  latter  ?  But  eat  as  much  of 
the  dessert  first  as  now  of  meat,  and  then  bring  on  your  beef 
and  pork,  and  they  would  scarcely  be  touched.  We  all  know 
how  much  keener  the  appetite  is  at  the  beginning  of  meals 
than  at  the  close,  and  yet  a  sated  appetite  likes  the,  flour  and 
fruit  preparations  much  better  than  the  meat  dishes.  Hence, 
as  that  tastes  best  which  .is  best 33,  fruit  and  flour  constitute 
the  natural  diet  of  man. 

Vary  the  experiment.  Set  berries  and  milk,  and  also  meat, 
before  any  children  you  please,  and  after  telling  them  to  make 
their  meal  wholly  of  the  one  they  like  best,  yet  partake  of 
but  one  dish,  and  they  will  all  prefer  the  milk  and  berries. 
And  this  is  true  of  most  adults.  Many  readers  can  testify 
that  suppers  composed  of  milk,  bread,  and  berries,  relish  bet- 
ter than  any  other  meal.  In  the  absence  of  berries,  apples, 
peaches,  pears,  and  other  kinds  of  fruit,  cooked  and  raw,  in 
their  place  relish  about  as  well.  Peel,  cut,  and  sweeten 
peaches,  and  tell  children  they  can  eat  them  with  bread  and 
butter,  or  that  they  can  have  meat  and  butter  with  bread,  but 
if  they  choose  the  meat  must  not  have  the  peaches,  and  not 
one  in  hundreds  will  prefer  the  meat.  Nor  one  in  millions 
prefer  all  meat  to  all  vegetables  and  fruit.  So  of  dried 
peaches  or  apples,  stewed  with  raisins,  and  sweetened.  Many 
kinds  of  pears  are  still  better.  Give  adults  the  same  choice, 
and  in  spite  of  their  perversion  of  appetite  consequent  on  eat- 
ing so  much  meat,  most  prefer  the  bread  and  fruit.  Or  set 
apple  dumplings  and  good  sauce  upon  the  table  with  meat,  it 
being  understood  that  boarders  can  have  their  choice,  but 
must  partake  of  only  one  dish,  and  most  will  relish  the  fruit 
and  flour  preparations  better  than  the  meat.  Or  make  a  stew 
pie  of  flour  and  apples,  or  cherries,  or  berries,  or  peaches, 
8* 


90  ANIMAL  poor 

green  or  dned,  or  pears,  or  raisins,  or  any  other  kind  of  fruit, 
well  sweetened,  and  most  people  prefer  it  to  all  other  edibles. 
And  all  would  eat  a  much  greater  proportion  of  these  various 
preparations  of  fruit  and  flour  than  they  now  do,  only  that 
they  are  considered  too  CHOICE  and  SCARCE  to  constitute  a  full 
meal — and  thus  of  nuts  and  raisins.  But  for  the  impression 
that  these  desserts  are  not  substantial  enough  for  laboring 
men — an  idea  entirely  erroneous383940 — and  that  they  are  the 
most  expensive — also  erroneous — that  is,  if  appetite  had  its 
choice,  it  would  eschew  meat,  and  prefer  sweetened  prepara- 
tions of  bread  and  fruit  almost  altogether. 

The  same  result  is  obtained  by  another  variation  of  the  ex- 
periment. Contrast  the  relish  with  which  most  people  eat 
short-cake  and  butter,  or  buckwheat  cakes  and  molasses  or 
honey,  with  meat  and  gravy.  Not  that  these  cakes  are  re- 
commended, yet  they  still  further  illustrate  our  doctrine,  that 
preparations  of  flour  and  fruit  RELISH  better,  especially  with 
children,  than  meat. 

The  various  kinds  of  cake  eaten,  still  further  prove  our 
doctrine.  We  calculate  on  supper  as  the  most  dainty  meal  of 
the  three,  and  cake  is  to  it  what  desserts  are  to  dinner,  namely, 
the  very  climax  of  all.  This  is  doubly  true  of  the  WEDDING 
cake.  Weddings  are  among  the  most  important  events  of  life, 
and  nuptial  suppers  are  important  items  of  weddings ;  and 
hence  no  expense  or  pains  are  spared  to  render  them  the  very 
achme  of  luxurious  eating.  And  in  what  does  this  achme 
consist  ?  In  roast  beef?  In  any  preparation  of  flesh  ?  No; 
but  in  wedding  CAKES.  If  meat  were  generally  esteemed  to 
TASTE  the  best,  the  married  pair  would  send  out  cuts  of  meat, 
instead  of  cake,  which  is  never  done.  These  tests  of  what 
the  public  relish  best  are  infallible,  though  so  common  as  to 
have  escaped  general  observation.  What  supper  can  relish 
better  than  bread,  butter,  and  honey,  except  it  be  short-cake 
or  buckwheat  cakes  in  place  of  bread  ?  How  insignificant 
meat  in  comparison ! 

Finally,  after  we  have  eaten  our  buckwheat  and  molasses 
breakfast,  our  fruit  and  flour  or  meat  dinner  and  dessert,  and 
our  short -cake-and-butter  supper,  "  topped  off"  with  preserves 


LESS    PALATABLE    THAN    FARINACEOUS.  91 

and  cake,  we  stroll  out  in  *he  evening  with  some  .oved  one, 
and  wishing  to  heighten  our  friendship  by  partaking  together 
the  very  daintiest  morsel  known  to  the  palate,  we  step  into  a 
confectionary — the  sole  object  of  which  being  to  gratify  the 
palate,  it  of  course  protfers  the  most  dainty  of  luxuries — and 
call  for  what  ?  Meat  in  any  form  ?  No,  but  ICE  CREAMS,  etc. ; 
if  in  their  season,  STRAWBERRIES  AND  CREAM,  or  other  berries 
in  their  respective  seasons,  because  they  furnish  the  highest 
gustatory  enjoyment  known  to  man — not  to  a  few,  for  then 
they  would  not  be  kept,  but  to  ALL,  because* preparations  of 
meat  are  rarely  kept  by  confectionaries  proper,  and  when  kept, 
are  designed  for  FOOD,  not  as  a  relish  merely.  Who  loves 
roast  beef  better  than  rich  Vergaluce  pears,  golden  apricots, 
Morris  White  peaches,  and  other  delicious  fruits  ?  If  meat 
tasted  best  to  the  many,  it  would  be  the  "crack-up  dish;" 
but  ice-creams,  berries-and-cream,  jellies,  preserves,  cakes, 
custards,  macaronis,  floating-islands,  blanck-mange,  candies 
in  various  forms,  oranges,  lemonade,  and  the  like — all  prepa- 
rations of  flour,  sugar,  eggs,  nuts,  and  fruit — make  up  what  all 
regard  as  the  real  DAINTIES  of  the  palate,  to  the  entire  exclu- 
sion of  flesh  preparations. 

Our  proof  is  thus  conclusive,  that  farinaceous  preparations 
are  more  palatable  than  flesh  ;  yet,  as  many  will  believe  no- 
thing not  found  in  the  Bible,  and  most  regard  it  as  paramount 
authority,  it  also  sustains  our  doctrine  :  "Butter  and  honey 
shall  he  eat,"  because  these  were  the  daintiest  luxuries  that 
could  be  named,  and  his  prophetic  feeding  on  such  dainties 
indicated  his  super-royal  rank.  "  What  is  sweeter  than 
honey  ?"  says  Samson.  Many  kindred  allusions  show  that 
farinaceous  food  was  esteemed  far  more  delicious  than  meat 
in  Scripture  times,  and  that  grapes  held  a  similar  rank. 
Honey  is  frequently  mentioned  in  Scripture  as  the  most  deli, 
cious  species  of  edibles,  and  this  the  tastes  of  the  moderns  also 
attest. 

A  chapter  in  the  Author's  dietetic  experience.  Not  that  he 
sets  up  his  own  taste  as  a  standard  for  others,  but  that  others 
may  be  induced  to  make  like  experiments.  With  the  first  ap- 
pearance of  strawberries  annually,  he  picks  o*  buys,  mashes, 


92  ANIMAL   FOOD. 

sweetens,  and  adds  water  or  milk,  and  breaks  in  brown  bread. 
This  dish  constitutes  his  only  diet  for  breakfast  and  supper, 
and  often  for  dinner,  when  he  eats  three  diurnal  meals. 
When  strawberries  disappear,  raspberries — he  prefers  the 
black,  which  he  cultivates — supply  their  place,  till  they  give 
way  to  currants,  whortleberries  and  blackberries.  Give  me 
this  diet,  and  you  are  quite  welcome  to  all  the  flesh-pots  of 
modern  cookery.  I  envy  not  a  prince  his  dainties,  but  fancy 
that  my  living  is  far  more  delicious  than  his. 

These  gone*  pears  and  peaches  take  their  place.  I  sit 
down  to  breakfasts  and  suppers  consisting  of  peaches  or  pears, 
sometimes  cut,  mashed,  watered  and  sweetened,  with  bread, 
but  oftener  to  bread  and  peaches  or  pears  alone.  Let  the 
bread  and  fruit  be  first-rate,  and  I  have  no  desire  to  taste 
meat,  be  il  of  the  choicest  varieties.  I  often  vary  the  dish  by 
adding  cream  or  milk  in  small  quantities,  just  sufficient  to 
moisten  the  whole.  This  diet  serves  me  till  November,  and 
always  I  regret  its  departure,  but  intend  to  prolong  it  by  rais- 
ing WINTER  pears.  I  sometimes  vary  the  dish  by  stewing  or 
boiling  the  pears  in  water,  and  add  molasses,  eaten  with  bread. 
Baked  apples  and  bread,  sometimes  eaten  alone  and  sometimes 
cut  into  milk,  furnish  another  change ;  and  still  another  con- 
sists in  a  pudding  made  of  potatoe  starch,  milk,  and  eggs,  eaten 
with  cream  and  sugar,  jelly  or  fruit.  Stewed  cherries  furnish 
another  variety,  and  so  do  dried  fruits  stewed,  to  which  add 
raisins,  and  you  make  a  delicious  relish.  Prunes  stewed  in 
considerable  water,  with  bread,  constitute  another  variation. 
And  if  flesh  eaters  relish  their  steaks,  sirloins,  chops,  fowls, 
hams,  or  even  pigeons,  woodcock,  canvass-back  ducks,  salmon, 
or  their  turtle-soup,  etc.,  better  than  I  do  these  dishes,  I  am 
nevertheless  quite  contented  with  my  own  fare.  Understand 
that  I  LIVE  on  these  delicious  dishes,  instead  of  eating  them 
as  relishes  merely ;  thus  making  entire  meals  of  nothing  but 
desserts ;  eaten  not  after  the  appetite  has  been  sated  as  well 
as  blunted  *J  with  meats,  but  with  all  the  keenness  of  fresh 
appetite. 

Thus  much  for  breakfast  and  supper.  For  dinner — which, 
however,  in  consequence -of  often  postponing  my  breakfast  till 


THE  AUTHOR'S  DIET.  93 

nine  or  ten  o'clock,  I  frequently  omit — I  take  often  the  same 
as  for  breakfast  and  supper;  or  sometimes  eat  peas,  beans, 
eggs  broken  into  water  and  boiled  but  little,  or  butter-milk 
or  sour  milk  sweetened,  or  the  apple  or  cherry  of  pot-pies  and 
dumplings  eaten  with  bread,  or  mealy  potatoes,  or  rice  with 
molasses,  milk,  or  fruit,  or  custard  and  bread,  or  bread  and 
apples,  etc.,  etc.  Greens,  squashes,  melons,  onions,  beets, 
turnips,  pumpkins,  especially  pumpkin  pies,  I  relish  without 
meat ;  but  eschew  cucumbers,  raddishes,  green  corn,  and  all 
fresh-cooked  flour  victuals,  such  as  short-cakes,  the  crust  of 
dumplings  and  pot-pies,  etc.  I  once  loved  cucumbers  and 
green  corn,  but  found  they  injured  me,  and  discontinued  them 
years  ago,  and  have  now  lost  all  relish  for  them.  Similar 
abstinence  will  conquer  any  and  all  vitiated  cravings.  Rad- 
dishes may  do  well  enough  when  boiled,  and  cucumbers  and 
corn  when  ripe,  or  fried,  yet  others  are  quite  welcome  to  the 
PAINS  consequent  on  eating  them  while  crude  and  uncooked. 

My  winter  and  spring  diet  consists  mainly  of  bread  and 
apples,  the  latter  generally  uncooked,  but  sometimes  stewed 
or  baked.  Sweet  apples  are  preferable,  because  they  con- 
tain much  more  substance  than  sour.  Corn  cracked  and 
hulled,  commonly  called  homminy,  is  another  favorite  dish, 
and  so  are  Indian  and  oat-meal  gruels,  and  also  oat-meal,  In- 
dian, rye  and  wheat  mush,  the  flour  for  the  last  two  unbolted. 
I  eat  honey  freely  in  winter.  Nor  are  split-peas  or  white 
beans  made  into  soup  for  dinner  one  day,  and  the  balance 
baked  the  next,  such  poor  fare  as  to  be  allowed  to  fall  into 
disuse.  But  of  these  hereafter.  Give  me  my  farinaceous 
diet  for  GUSTATORY  pleasure  merely,  as  well  as  health,  and  you 
may  have  the  meat.  Nor  would  I  give  my  diet  in  exchange 
for  that  of  kings  and  queens — reference  being  had  to  its  de- 
liciousness  merely. 

If  objection  be  raised  to  this  diet  on  the  score  of  expense, 
it  is  claimed  that  it  is  certainly  CHEAPER  than  flesh.  All  kinds 
of  grain  are  cheap  compared  with  meat,  and  any  one  can 
raise  fruit  enough  for  family  consumption,  oh  a  small  piece  of 
ground,  or  buy  it  with  far  less  money  than  the  same  amount 
of  nourishment  costs  in  the  form  of  meat.  Apples  and  flour 


94  ANIMAL   FOOD 

are  the  cheapest  kinds  of  food  eaten,  and  would  be  much  cheaper 
if  less  grain  were  fed  to  cattle,  and  pastures  converted  into  or- 
chards. But  expense  is  nothing  where  health  is  concerned52. 
That  diet  is  cheapest  in  the  end,  be  its  first  cost  what  it  may, 
which  best  sustains  mind  and  body.  But  this  matter  of  ex- 
pense is  foreign  to  our  present  inquiry,  which  appertains  to 

the  PALATABLENESS  of  food. 

Having  shown  that  that  diet  is  best  which  TASTES  best,  and 
that  preparations  of  bread,  sweets,  and  fruits  are  more  delicious 
Jian  meats ;  therefore  they  are  best  for  man,  and  his  natural 
diet. 

49.       ANIMAL    FOOD    BLUNTS    TASTE. 

Our  gustatory  argument  in  favor  of  a  farinaceous  diet  de- 
rives additional  force  from  the  fact,  that  meat  blunts  the  taste, 
especially  if  highly  peppered  and  spiced.  Of  this  Caspar 
Hauser  furnished  a  striking  example ;  and  all  will  confirm  it 
who  will  try  the  two,  say  a  year  each,  or  long  enough  for  the 
taste  to  become  regulated.  My  own  experience  accords  with 
this  principle;  and  I  submit  to  all  who  have  changed  their 
diet  from  a  mixed  to  one  exclusively  vegetable,  whether  the 
mere  pleasure  of  eating  has  not  been  doubled  in  consequence. 
My  full  conviction  is  that  mankind,  by  following  the  farina- 
ceous system,  eating  temperately,  and  adopting  the  right  mode 
of  cookery,  might  double  their  gustatory  pleasures  several 
times  over.  Appetite  thus  palsied  can  have  little  relish  for 
anything.  Hence,  since  a  flesh  diet  blunts  that  keen  natural 
relish  on  which  all  table  enjoyments  depend,  besides  being  less 
palatable43,  why  curtail  those  enjoyments  by  eating  meat? 
Still,  all  who  choose  meat,  have  a  perfect  right  to  their  choice. 
Mark  how  all  collateral  aspects  of  our  subject  favor  a  farina- 
ceous diet,  but  bear  against  flesh. 

50.       A    BREAD    AND    FRLV.T    DIET    NOURISHES    MORAL   SENTIMENT. 

We  have  seen  that  some  kinds  of  food  develope  some  mental 
and  physical  elements,  and  other  kinds  other  elements  ** ',  and 
also  that  animal  food  kindles  propensity37.  And  since  pro- 
pensity has  its  natural  diet,  of  course  moral  sentiment  has  its, 


BLUNTS    TASTE.  95 

and  intellect  its,  on  that  "  whole-or-nothing"  principle  already 
presented17.  Then  what  kinds  of  diet  are  especially  adapted 
to  promote  moral  sentiment  and  intellect  ?  A  FRUIT  AND  FARI- 
NACEOUS. Our  proof  is  the  converse  of  that  already  presented 
touching  animal  food ;  namely,  that  all  farinaceous  animals 
are  docile  and  kindly  disposed,,  as  the  sheep,  cow,  horse,  and 
the  like.  Those  human  masses  who  live  on  vegetables,  as  the 
Hindoo,  Chinese,  and  Japanese,  not  only  have  less  Destruc- 
.tiveness38,  but  manifest  more  religious  zeal  than  flesh-eating 
communities.  To  say  that  they  have  a  thousand  per  cent, 
more  religious  feeling  than  we  have,  is  quite  within  bounds. 
True,  it  is  poor  in  kind,  but  we  speak  of  QUANTITY.  It  only 
requires  guiding,  there  is  abundance  of  it.  Behold  their  sacri- 
fices and  self-tortures,  to  please  their  idols !  Their  religion  is 
their  all  They  are  moreover  honest.  Their  silks,  teas,  etc., 
are  as  recommended.  Not  so  with  flesh  eaters.  We  have  a 
mongrel  religion,  which  we  twist  into  all  sorts  of  phantasies  as 
propensity  may  dictate.  Our  religion  bends  to  our  other  fac- 
ulties ;  their  other  faculties  bend  to  their  religion.  Ours  is  on 
the  surface — a  Sunday  coat  which  we  seldom  wear — theirs  is 
their  under  garment.  Much  of  ours  is  shallow  pretension, 
based  in  policy  and  sheer  selfishness;  theirs  their  heart's  core. 
Nor,  can  a  flesh-eating  nation  be  named,  who  are  not  more 
animal  than  moral,  or  pious.  The  Indian  is  still  less  religious 
than  we  are,  and  eats  more  flesh.  And  this  general  fact  holds 
good  everywhere,  and  in  all  ages. 

Similar  results  are  derived  from  the  organs  called  into 
action  in  PROCURING  farinaceous  food.  While  animal  food 
cannot  be  procured  without  a  violent  exercise  of  propensity  in 
its  worst  forms37,  nor  without  also  violating  the  moral  senti- 
ments42, to  procure  farinaceous  food  requires  the  exercise  of 
intellect  and  moral  sentiments.  Thus,  Agriculture  is  a  true 
science,  and  requires  a  great  amount  of  knowledge  and  intel- 
lect for  its  successful  prosecution,  and  is  calculated  tc  develope 
that  intellect.  The  very  nature  of  things,  therefore,  requires 
that  fruits  and  grains  should  feed  those  faculties  required  in 
procuring  them,  just  as  ft;  procure  animal  food  requires  pro- 
pensity with  little  morality,  which  accordingly  feeds  propen- 


06  ANIMAL    FOOD 

sity37,  but  blunts  moral  sentiment42.  Unless  this  is  thus,  na- 
ture is  not  true  to  herself;  for  one  of  her  ordinances  is  that 
all  food  shall  feed  those  faculties  in  particular,  which  are  most 
called  into  action  in  its  pursuit *. 

Again,  predominant  propensity  cannot  consist  with  predom 
inant  moral  sentiments,  and  therefore  the  latter  is  incompati- 
ble with  a  mixed  diet.     With  what,  then,  does  it  consist,  if 
not  with  a  farinaceous  diet  ? 

In  conclusion,  readers,  which  one  of  all  our  arguments  is 
not  amply  sufficient,  in  and  of  itself,  to  prove  that  the  natural 
dietetic  character  of  man  is  farinaceous,  and  not  carnivorous  ? 
Scrutinize  each  separately,  and  then  scan  them  all  collectively 
with  rigid  intellectual  optics,  and  then  say  whether,  taken 
collectively,  they  do  not  completely  interdict  meat,  and  prove  a 
grain,  esculent,  and  fruit  diet  to  be  the  ONLY  one  provided  and 
allowed  by  nature,  and  of  course  the  one  most  promotive  of 
human  and  personal  happiness  and  perfection.  Is  not  our  ar- 
gument both  irrefutable  and  a  satisfactory  exponent  of  man's 
natural  dietetic  character  ?  Do  not  those  who  eat  meat  vio- 
late their  natures,  and  therefore  eat  it  at  their  peril  ?  Do 
not  those  who  live  on  fruits  and  vegetables  fulfil  nature's  die- 
tetic ordinance,  and  thus  reap  her  reward  ?  Are  they  not  only 
both  safe,  but  infinite  gainers  by  eschewing  meat  and  living 
luxuriously  on  the  bounties  and  fruits  of  the  earth  ?  "  He 
that  is  wise,  is  wise  for  himself,  but  he  that  scorneth,  he  alone 
must  bear  it." ' 

51.       VEGETABLES     FURNISH    ALL    THE     NUTRITIOUS    ELEMENTS    REQUIRED 
IN    THE    VITAL    PROCESS. 

The  only  shadow  of  doubt  now  remaining  as  to  the  fitnesi 
of  an  exclusively  farinaceous  diet  for  human  sustenance,  de- 
pends on  the  answer  to  this  question  :  Do  vegetables  contain 
all  the  elements  which  enter  into,  and  are  required  by,  the 
vital  process  ?  If  so,  our  argument  is  complete.  And  who 
can  answer  this  question  equally  with  the  great  Liebig  ?  His 
"  Animal  Chemistry,"  one  of  the  most  profoundly  philosophica* 
works  on  this  new  subject  of  scientific  inquiry,  (if  on  any 
other,)  <jver  written,  thus  answers  this  question : 


NOT  NECESSARY.  97 

'•  Two  substances  require  especial  consideration  as  the  chief  ingre- 
dients of  the  blood  ;  one  of  these  separates  immediately  from  the  blood 
when  withdrawn  from  the  circulation.  It  is  well  known  that  in  this  case 
blood  coagulates,  and  separates  into  a  yellowish  liquid,  the  SERUM  of  the 
blood,  and  a  gelatinous  mass,  which  adheres  to  a  rod  or  stick  in  soft,  elas- 
tic fibres,  when  coagulating  blood  is  briskly  stirred.  This  is  the  FIBRIN  a 
of  the  blood,  which  is  identical  in  all  its  properties  with  muscular  fibre, 
when  the  latter  is  purified  from  all  foreign  matters 

"  The  second  principal  ingredient  of  the  blood  is  contained  in  the  se- 
rum, and  gives  to  this  liquid  all  the  properties  of  the  white  of  eggs,  with 
which  it  is  identical.  When  heated,  it  coagulates  into  a  white  elastic 
mass,  and  the  coagulating  substance  is  called  ALBUMEN. 

"  Fibriue  and  albumen,  the  chief  ingredients  of  blood,  contain,  in  all, 
seven  chemical  elements,  among  which  nitrogen,  phosphorus,  and  sulphur 
are  found.  They  contain  also  the  earth  of  bones.  The  serum  retains  in 
solution  sea  salt  and  other  gaits  of  potash  and  soda,  in  which  the  acids 
are  carbonic,  phosphoric,  and  sulphuric  acids.  The  globules  of  the  blood 
contain  fibrine  and  albumen,  along  with  a  red  coloring  matter,  in  which 
iron  is  a  constant  element.  Beside  these,  the  blood  contains  certain  fatty 
bodies  in  small  quantity,  which  differ  from  ordinary  fats  in  several  of  their 
properties. 

"  Chemical  analysis  has  led  to  the  remarkable  result,  that  fibrine  and 
albumen  contain  the  same  organic  elements  united  in  the  same  propor- 
tion, so  that  two  analyses,  the  one  of  fibrine  and  the  other  of  albumen, 
do  not  differ  more  than  two  analyses  of  fibrine  or  two  of  albumen  re 
epectively  do,  in  the  composition  of  100  parts. 

"  Both  albumen  and  fibrine,  in  the  process  of  nutrition,  are  capable  of 
being  converted  into  muscular  fibre,  and  muscular  fibre  is  capable  of  be- 
ing reconverted  into  blood.  These  facts  have  long  been  established  by 
physiologists,  and  chemistry  has  merely  proved  that  these  metamorphoses 
can  be  accomplished  under  the  influence  of  a  certain  force,  without  the 
aid  of  a  third  substance,  or  of  its  elements,  and  without  the  addition  of 
any  foreign  element,  or  the  separation  of  any  element  previously  present 
in  these  substances. 

"  The  nutritive  process  in  the  carnivora  is  seen  in  ita  simplest  form. 
This  class  of  animals  lives  on  the  blood  and  flesh  of  the  graminivora  ;  but 
this  blood  and  flesh  is,  in  all  its  properties,  identical  with  their  own 
Neither  chemical  nor  physiological  differences  can  be  discovered. 

"  In  a  chemical  sense,  therefore,  it  may  be  said  that  a  carnivorons  ani- 
mal, in  supporting  the  vital  process,  consumes  itself.  That  which  serves 
for  its  nutrition  is  identical  with  those  parts  of  its  organization  which  are 
to  be  renewed. 

"  Chemical  researches  have  shown,  that  all  such  parts  of  vegetables  as 
can  afford  nutriment  to  animals  contain  certain  constituents  which  are 
rich  in  nitrogen;  and  the  most  ordinary  experience  proves  that  animals 
re  juire  for  their  support  and  nutrition  less  of  these  parts  of  plants  in  pro- 
portion as  they  abound  in  the  nitrogenized  constituents.  Animals  cannot 
be  fed  on  matters  destitute  of  these  nitrogenized  constituents.  •- 

"  These  important  products  of  vegetation  are  especially  abundant  in 
the  seeds  of  the  different  kinds  of  grain,  and  of  peas,  beans,  and  lentils ; 
in  the  roots  and  the  juices  of  what  are  commonly  called  vegetables. 
They  exist,  >owever,  in  all  plants,  without  exception,  and  in  every  part 
of  plants  in  larger  or  smaller  quantity. 

"  When  the  newly  expressed  juices  of  vegetables  are  allowed  to  stand, 
a  separation  takes  place  in  a  few  minutes.      A  gelatinous  precipitate 
9 


98  ANIMAL    FOOD 

k( 

commonly  of  a  green  tinge,  is  deposited,  and  this,  when  acted  on  by 
liquids  which  remove  the  coloring  matter,  leaves  a  grayish  white 
substance,  well  known  to  druggists  as  the  deposit  from  vegetable  juices. 
This  is  one  of  the  nitrogenized  compounds  which  serves  for  the  nutrition 
of  animals,  and  has  been  named  VEGETABLE  FIBKINE.  The  juice  of  grapes  is 
especially  rich  in  this  constituent,  but  it  is  most  abundant  in  the  seeds  of 
\\  heat,  and  of  the  cerealia.  It  may  be  obtained  from  wheat  flour  by  a 
mechanical  operation,  and  in  a  state  of  tolerable  purity ;  it  is  then  called 
GLUTEN,  but  the  glutinous  property  belongs,  not  to  vegetable  fibrine,  but 
to  a  foreign  substance,  present  in  small  quantity,  which  is  not  found  in 
the  other  cerealia. 

"The  second  nitrogenized  compound  remains  dissolved  in  the  juice 
after  the  separation  of  the  fibrine.  It  does  not  separate  from  the  juice  at 
the  ordinaiy  temperature,  but  is  instantly  coagulated  when  the  liquid 
containing  it  is  heated  to  the  boiling  point. 

"  When  the  clarified  juice  of  nutritious  vegetables,  such  as  cauliflower, 
asparagus,  mangel  wurzel,  or  turnips,  is  made  to  boil,  a  coagnlum  is  formed, 
which  it  is  absolutely  impossible  to  distinguish  from  the  substance  which 
separates  as  coagulum,  whem  the  serum  of  blood  or  the  white  of  an  egg, 
diluted  with  water,  are  heated  to  the  boiling  point.  This  is  VEGETABLE 
ALBUMEN.  It  is  found  in  the  greatest  abundance  in  certain  seeds,  in  nnts, 
almonds,  and  others,  in  which  the  starch  of  the  grammes  is  replaced  by 
oiL 

"  The  third  uitrogenized  constituent  of  the  vegetable  food  of  animals  73 
VEGETABLE  CASEINS.  It  is  chiefly  found  in  the  seeds  of  peas,  beans,  lentils, 
and  similar  leguminous  seeds.  Like  vegetable  albumen,  it  is  soluble  in 
water,  but  differs  from  it  in  this,  that  its  solution  is  not  coagulated  by  heat. 
When  the  solution  is  heated  or  evaporated,  a  skin  forms  on  its  surface, 
and  the  addition  of  an  acid  causes  a  coagulum,  just  as  in  animal  milk.  • 

"  These  three  nitrogenized  compounds,  vegetable  fibrine,  albumen,  and 
caseine,  are  the  true  nitrogenized  constituents  of  the  food  of  graminivorous 
animals;  all  other' nitrogenized  compounds,  occuring  in  plants,  are  either 
rejected  by  animals,  as  in  the  case  of  the  characterestic  principle  of 
poisonous  and  medicinal  plants,  or  else  they  occur  in  the  food  in  such  very 
small  proportion,  that  they  cannot  possibly  contribute  to  the  increase  of 
mass  iu  the  animal  body." 

"  How  beautifully  and  admirably  simple,  with  the  aid  of  these  disco- 
veries, appears  the  process  of  nutrition  in  animals,  the  formation  of  their 
organs,  in  which  vitality  chiefly  resides !  Those  vegetable  principles, 
which  in  animals  are  used  to  form  blood,  contain  the  chief  constituents 
of  blood,  fibriue  and  albumen,  ready  formed,  as  far  as  regards  their  com 
position.  All  plants,  besides,  contain  a  certain  quantity  of  iron,  which 
re-appears  in  the  coloring  matter  of  the  blood.  Vegetable  fibrine  and 
aziimal  fibrine,  vegetable  albumen  and  animal  albumen,  hardly  diflfei 
even  in  form  ;  if  these  principles  be  wanting  in  the  food,  the  nutrition  01 
the  animal  is  arrested ;  and  when  they  are  present,  the  graminivorou? 
animal  obtains  in  its  food  the  very  same  principles  on  the  presence  of 
which  the  nutrition  of  the  carnivora  entirely  depends. 

<:  Vegetables  produce  in  their  organism  the  blood  of  all  animals,  ffn 
the  carnivora,  in  consuming  the  blood  and  flesh  of  the  graminivora,  con 
Bume,  strictly  speaking,  only  the  vegetable  principles  which  have  served 
for  the  nutrition  of  the  latter.  Vegetable  fibrine  and  albumen  take  tht 
same  form  in  the  stomach  of  the  graminivorous  animal  as  animal  fibrins 
and  albumen  do  in  that  of  the  carnivorous  animal." — LIKBIG'S  Anima, 
Chemistry. 


FARINACEOUS    FOOD.  9$ 

Liebig's  concluding  paragraph  answers  our  question  affirm 
atively,  and  in  the  most  conclusive  manner,  by  showing  tha^ 
even  the  carnivora  are  nourished  solely  by  those  chemical  ele. 
ments  derived  from  the  vegetable  food  of  their  prey  !  So  tha< 
even,  the  carnivora  live,  after  all,  on  vegetable  aliments. 
Rigid  scientific  analysis,  therefore,  sustains  our  position,  thai 
animal  food  is  unnecessary  to  human  sustenance.  And  the 
fact,  that  many  have  lired  half  a  century  or  more  without 
lasting  of  animal  food,  and  enjoyed  all  their  powers  and  fac- 
ulties 41,  bears  a  kindred  testimony  j  for  if  animal  food  furnished 
a  NECESSARY  element  of  diet  which  could  be  obtained  nowhere 
else,  all  those  who  wholly  abstained  from  it  would  soon  feel  its 
want,  become  enfeebled,  pine  away,  and  die ;  whereas  many 
of  them  become  every  way  improved  in  mind  and  body  by 
such  abstinence ;  and  this  shows,  that  the  human  system 
CAN  obtain  from  vegetables  all  it  requires  to  perfect  all  it* 
functions. 


SECTION  II. 

BREAD,  PASTRY,  FRUIT,  MILK,   SWEETS,  BUTTER,  AND  ESCULENTS. 
52.       BREAD,  AND   ITS    PREPARATION. 

HAVING  thus  found  nature's  great  dietetic  landmarks  in  a 
farinaceous  diet,  we  proceed  to  fill  up  this  outline  by  examin- 
ing more  in  detail  the  nutritive  properties  of  the  different  edibles 
found  in  the  vegetable  kingdom  3\  Of  these,  bread  is  beyond 
question  the  most  important — is  the  veritable  "  STAFF  OF 
LIFE" — and  therefore  deserves  primary  consideration  ;  and  the 
more  so,  since  the  materials  of  which  it  is  made  are  used  in 
composition  with  almost  all  other  kinds  of  food. 

Bread  is  made  chiefly  of  GRAIN,  of  one  kind  or  another, 
crushed  or  ground  into  flour,  which  is  usually  bolted.  Thus 
far,  these  grains  have  constituted  the  great  staple  of  human 
diet.  From  time  immemorial,  and  in  all  nations,  except  the 
most  degraded  savages,  they  have  been  the  chief  reliance  of 
the  human  family  as  food,  and  will  undoubtedly  still  continue 


100  FARINACEOUS    FOOD. 

to  be  while  the  race  exists.  Other  forms  of  food  may  be  gen 
erally  introduced,  as  potatoes  have  lately  been,  yet  never  to 
take  the  place  of  "flour  victuals,"  but  only  to  accompany 
them.  With  many  kinds  of  food  we  do  not  eat  meat,  but  we 
eat  bread  with  all  kinds,  and  more  bread  usually  than  any- 
thing else.  We  make  flour,  both  fine  and  coarse,  bolted  and 
unbolted,  into  various  forms  of  food,  both  with  shortening  and 
without,  with  and  without  sweetening,  with  various  kinds,  single 
and  mixed,  as  all  wheat,  all  rye,  all  Indian,  all  barley,  all  oat- 
meal, all  rice,  and  part  wheat  and  part  Indian,  or  "  rye-and-In- 
dian,"  or  "  wheat-and-rye."  We  also  boil  each  of  these  kinds 
of  flour  into  puddings,  the  main  ingredients  and  dietetic  uses  of 
which  are  the  same  as  bread,  or  sweeten,  shorten,  and  fry  in 
fat,  making  crullers,  doughnuts  and  nut-cakes ;  or  shorten  and 
add  fruit,  as  in  the  manufacture  of  apple-fritters,  and  also  of 
pies  of  all  kinds,  pot  and  meat-pies  included  ;  or  thickened 
into  soups  of  all  kinds,  or  made  into  "  dressings ;"  and  thus  we 
work  them  into  nearly  all  the  food  we  eat.  Even  meat  eaters 
live  mainly  upon  them,  and  so  do  many  species  of  animals. 
Undoubtedly,  after  ages  \v»ll  discover  and  perfect  many  other 
kinds  of  grain  now  growing  wild  in  our  swamps,  or  mountains, 
or  forests,  as  a  recent  one  has  Indian  corn.  But  cereal  grains 
will  always  be  a  staple  article  of  food. 

These  grains  are  simply  seeds,  and  all  seeds  contain  nour- 
ishment, in  order  to  feed  the  sprout  till  it  can  put  forth  its 
roots  and  draw  sustenance  from  the  earth.  And  it  is  this 
nutritious  principle,  stored  up  for  the  purpose  of  nourishing 
the  plant  in  its  embryo,  which  sustains  human  and  animal  life. 
And  the  probable  reason  why  the  flour  of  grain  forms  the  best 
species  of  nourishment  for  man  is.  that  it  is  so  highly  organ- 
ized,  and  so  condensed.  It  can  also  be  ground  fine,  and  by 
proper  management,  preserved  for  years. 

Chemically  analyzed,  wheat,  the  best  of  the  entire  cereal 
family,  contains  about  eight-tenths  of  nutritious  substances  ; 
r^fe*  barley,  and  oats,  about  the  same ;  rice  nine-tenths,  and 
Tndian  corn  about  seven-tenths;  while  meat  contains  only 
about  five  and  a  half  tenths. 

Bread  being  thus  promote  of  life,  its  preparation,  so  that 


dOAttSE    AND    FINE    FLOUR    BREAD.  101 

it  shall  nourish  us  in  the  best  possible  manner,  becomes  a  mat- 
ter of  the  utmost  importance. 

After  the  grain  is  duly  cleansed — and  none  of  us  know  how 
much  besides  wheat  is  ground  up  with  it — it  is  first  ground. 
And  here  two  egregious  errors  are  committed.  The  weight 
of  the  stone  and  its  rapidity  of  motion,  both  crush  it  so  fine 
and  heat  it  so  hot,  as  essentially  to  impair  its  nutritive  proper- 
ties.  Hence,  flour  is  often  said  to  be  "dead;"  much  of  its 
"life,"  or  nutrition  having  been  destroyed.  Indian  meal  suf- 
fers much  fron'i  being  similarly  "  killed,"  as  is  evinced  by  its 
far  greater  sweetness  when  coarse  ground,  than  when  ground 
extra  fine — warrant  enough  that  excessive  grinding  impairs 
the  nutritive  properties33. 

53.       COARSE    AND    FINE    FLOUR   BREAD. 

Grain  is  ground  thus  fine  that  it  may  be  bolted  the  more 
closely,  so  as  to  become  the  whiter.  But  shall  looks  be  allowed 
to  impair  quality  ?  The  bran,  or  at  least  a  good  portion  of  it, 
left  in,  greatly  improves  its  nutritive  capability.  Else  nature 
would  have  allowed  us  to  separate  it  from  the  flour  without 
grinding  the  latter  to  death.  Its  presence  also  greatly  promotes 
Jiat  intestinal  action  so  essential  to  digestion.  Its  absence  facil- 
itates that  torpor  of  the  digestive  organs  and  consequent  con- 
stipation, which  paves  the  way  for  those  stomatic  complaints 
to  be  discussed  hereafter.  Give  fine  flour  to  hens,  cattle, 
horses,  or  any  other  animals,  and  it  will  soon  disorder  them 
effectually,  and  breed  disease.  And  unless  man  were  stronger 
constitutioned  than  any  other  animal,  it  would  break  down  and 
bury  all  who  eat  it.  Indeed,  it  is  now  effectually  consuming 
its  consumers  by  hundreds  of  thousands ;  not  suddenly,  but 
gradually,  by  impairing  digestion  and  thus  inducing  other  dis- 
eases to  which  the  death  is  ascribed.  All  who  eat  coarse  and 
unbolted  flour  bread,  will  thereby  obviate  half  their  sickness. 
It  keeps  the  intestinal  canal  open,  and  this  carries  off*  those 
causes  of  disease  which  fine  flour  bread,  by  inducing  consti- 
pation, retains  in  the  system  to  engender  sickness.  Nothing 
but  dire  necessity  ever  induces  me  to  live  habitually  on  fine 
flour  bread.  It  immediately  occasions  intestinal  sluggishness 
9* 


10,2  FARINACEOUS    FOOD. 

a«id  stomatic  disorder,  and,  in  consequence,  greatly  enhances 
d  vspeptic  troubles.  I  even  pen  -this  paragraph  after  having 
just  recovered  from  the  worst  dyspeptic  attack  I  have  experi- 
enced for  years,  brought  on  by  eating  fine  flour  bread  and  a 
very  little  meat,  between  which,  for  me,  there  is  little  if  any 
choice.  But  give  me  my  coarse  brown  bread  and  good  fruit, 
with  opportunities  for  exercise,  and  such  troubles,  as  in  this 
instance,  soon  disappear. 

Brown  bread  also  tastes  better  than  superfine,  as  all  who 
will  make  trial  can  perceive — another  conclusive  proof  of  its 
superiority33.  Our  New  England  ancestry  ate  coarse  bread 
made  of  rye  and  Indian,  and  lived  longer,  besides  enjoying 
far  better  health,  than  their  fine-flour-fed  descendants  have 
the  least  prospect  of  living  ;  and  the  Scotch  oat- cake  and  por- 
rage  eaters  rarely  know  how  dyspepsia  feels  till  they  exchange 
them  for  "killed"  flour  bread.  Dyspeptics  also  find  coarse 
bread  indispensable ;  and  what  is  thus  indispensable  to  weak 
stomachs  would  of  course  go  far  towards  keeping  strong  ones 
from  breaking.  Even  sailors  cannot  live  on  fine  flour  bread  ; 
much  more  our  sedentary  classes. 

Besides,  the  nutriment  of  fine  flour  bread  is  too  highly  con- 
densed.  Sugar  is  highly  nutritious,  yet,  eaten  alone,  it  soon 
disorders  digestion,  because  there  is  too  much  of  it  in  -too 
small  a  compass.  A  due  amount  of  bulk  is  as  essential  to 
perfect  digestion  as  the  nutrition  itself.  The  bran  thus  helps 
to  "  fill  up,"  and  besides  restraining  over-eating,  gently  irri- 
tates the  intestinal  coating,  and  provokes  action.  Still,  you 
fine  flour  lovers  are  quite  welcome  to  your  insipid  and  half 
"  killed"  white  bread  ;  yet  no  earthly  motive  but  absolute 
starvation  would  induce  me  to  partake  with  you  more  than  a 
few  meals  at  a  time. 

54.   LEAVKNED  AND  UNLEAVENED  BREAD. 

To  raise  the  bread  is  the  next  process  in  its  preparation. 
This  consists  in  causing  fermentation,  by  which  a  gas  is  gen- 
Brated  which  insinuates  itself  among  the  doughy  mass,  and 
thus  raises  it,  or  renders  it  porous. 

This  portion  of  the  bread-making  process  is  also  greatly 


LEAVENED  AND  UNLEAVENED  BREAD.         103 

overdone.  Fermentation  is  the  first  stage  of  decay.  It  cre- 
ates the  gas  by  souring  the  dough  ;  nor  is  it  possible  to  raise 
it  without  proportionally  souring  it,  because,  from  the  souring 
alone  is  this  raising  gas  derived,  though  habit  prevents  our 
perceiving  it.  But  let  it  stand  a  little  too  long,  and  it  tastes 
very  sour.  Unleavened  bread  will  also  keep  twice  or  thrice 
as  long  as  that  which  is  raised.  Of  this,  ship  bread,  Bos- 
ton crackers,  and  Graham  wafers,  are  examples.  This  lea- 
vening is  incipient  decomposition,  and  from  the  gas  evolved 
during  the  baking,  alcohol  in  large  quantities  can  be  manu- 
factured ;  and  alcohol  is  the  child  of  docomposition,  or  rotten- 
ness. How  is  '^east  obtained  ?  By  excessive  fermentation  ; 
and  the  world  over,  the  fermenting  process  is  the  rotting  pro- 
cess. This  incipient  decomposition  is  introduced  by  the  yeast 
into  the  dough,  and  of  course  impairs  its  virtue.  Hence,  ex- 
cessive fermentation  is  highly  injurious. 

And  herein  consists  my  unqualified  opposition  to  "bakers' 
bread."  It  is  fermented  almost  to  death  in  order  to  make  the 
greatest  possible  loaf  out  of  the  least  flour.  People  love  to 
be  gulled.  If  two  loaves,  both  containing  the  same  quantity 
and  quality  of  flour,  but  the  one  puffed  up  by  excessive  fermen- 
tation, while  the  other  was  not  thus  injured,  though  abundantly 
light  for  utility,  were  proffered  for  selection,  nearly  all  would 
prefer  the  hollow  bulk,  though  they  knew  it  to  be  inferior  to 
the  smaller,  though  better  loaf.  This  tempts  bakers  to  con- 
trive all  sorts  of  devices  to  swell  their  loaves ;  and,  to  neutral- 
ize the  souring,  they  put  in  ammonia  and  other  things  which 
leave  the  bread  vitiated  by  deleterious  compounds.  I  would 
eat  bakers'  bread  rather  than  actually  starve,  yet  sparingly, 
and  only  one  or  two  meals  in  succession.  Nothing  but  dire 
necessity  could  induce  me  to  live  habitually  upon  it.  Yet 
others  have  the  same  right  to  eat  it  which  I  take  in  eschew- 
ing it. 

Bread  raised  by  sour  milk  and  saleratus  is  less,  if  at  all 
objectionable,  because  the  gas  which  raises  it  is  created,  not 
by  decomposition,  but  by  the  chemical  combination  of  the 
acid  of  the  sour  milk  with  the  alkalie  of  the  saleratus,  and 
raised  too  quickly  to  allow  the  dough  to  sour.  I  recommend 


104  FARINACEOUS    FO013» 

its  frequent,  if  not  general  substitution  ror  bread  raised  witn 
turnpike,  yeast,  and  the  like.  "  Milk  emptyings"  bread,  be- 
sides being  whiter  and  sweeter  than  that  made  with  other 
emptyings,  is  more  wholesome.  It  becomes  light  before  i' 
sours,  and  is  universally  used  throughout  the  West. 

Let  bread  be  made,  then,  of  coarser  flour,  unbolted,  or  bolted 
but  little ;  be  raised  with  saleratus  or  milk  emptyings,  and  not 
unduly  bloated  up;  be  thoroughly  baked — and  its  crust  is  its 
best  portion  -and  never  eaten  warm ;  for  then  mastication 
rolls  it  up  ^.o  firm  masses  which  the  gastric  juice  penetrates 
with  difficulty,  and  be  eaten  more  abundantly  than  any  other 
article  of  diet.  • 

55.      RICE,  RYE,  OATMEAL,  BARLEY,  ETC. 

The  Eastern  nations  live  almost  wholly  on  rice,  and  the 
Scotch  on  oatmeal.  The  former  contains  a  greater  proportion 
of  nourishment  than  any  other  article  of  diet,  and  the  virtue 
of  the  latter  is  attested  by  the  powerful  frames  and  strong 
constitutions  of  the  Highland  Picts.  Fortunately,  oatmeal  is 
coming  into  general  use  amongst  us,  and  I  hail  and  would 
promote  its  introduction.  As  a  diet  for  children,  when  eaten 
with  milk,  it  probably  has  no  superior,  '/  eaual. 

The  dietetic  virtue  of  rye  is  not  generally  appreciated. 
Unbolted  rye  flour,  made  into  hasty-pudding,  is  one  of  the  most 
easily  digested  things  which  dyspeptics  can  eat.  It  is  also 
exceedingly  palatable.  Rye  bread  is  nutritious,  opening,  and, 
but  for  its  color,  would  undoubtedly  rival  wheat.  Try  it  as  a 
change. 

Barley  bread  was  once  a  staple  article  of  diet.  May  it 
again  become  a  general  favorite.  The  distillery  should  no 
longer'  be  allowed  to  consume  so  wholesome,  palatable,  and 
excellent  an  article  of  food. 

56.      PASTRY,  EGGS,  AND  SPICES, 

Next  come  up  for  canvass.  Cakes  and  pies  are  rarely 
eaten  as  food,  but  usually  as  a  relish  merely.  They  are  gen- 
erally deemed  unwholesome,  and  justly  so,  because  composed 
of  flour  and  grease  or  shortening  sweetened— a  compound 


PASTRY,  EGGS,  AND    SPICES.  105 

exceedingly  difficult  of  digestion.  Flour  sweetened  is  not  so 
bad ;  but  when  shortened  as  well  as  sweetened,  the  stomach 
dissolves  it  with  extreme  difficulty.  Melted  butter  is  extremely 
hard  of  digestion,  and  hence  the  unsuitableness  of  -cake  for 
children.  Spices  still  further  aggravate  the  evil. 

Bakers'  cake  is  still  more  injurious.  Great  quantities  of 
ammonia — a  poison  of  which  hartshorn  is  made — are  put  in 
to  render  it,  light;  and  to  all  this  is  added  colored  coatings, 
composed  of  poisonous  ingredients.  Domestic  cake  is  bad 
enough,  but  bakers'  is  utterly  unfit  even  for  the  adult  stomach, 
much  more  for  the  juvenile. 

If  any  doubt  remain  of  the  unwholesomeness  even  of  do- 
mestic cake,  the  following  recipes  must  effectually  obviate  it : 

POUND  CAKE. — "A  pound  each  of  butter,  sugar,  and  flour, 
and  ten  eggs."  As  ten  eggs  weigh  a  pound,  of  course  halt 
the  cake  is  butter  and  eggs,  and  only  one-quarter  flour,  and 
that  completely  saturated  with  sweet,  grease,  and  eggs,  baked 
an  HOUR.  Now  we  know  that  eggs  cook  abundantly  in  five 
minutes,  and  become  extremely  tough  and  hard  in  ten ;  and 
since  hard-cooked  eggs  are  universally  conceded  to  be  diffi- 
cult of  digestion,  what  must  they  be  after  being  baked  an  hour, 
and  in  fat  and  flour  ? 

Sponge  cake  consists  of  only  one-fifth  flour,  two-fifths  eggs, 
baked  to  a  crisp,  and  the  balance  sugar.  Shrewsbury  cake 
contains  one-third  flour,  above  one-third  butter  and  eggs,  and 
the  balance  brandy,  sugar,  and  nutmeg — a  most  deleterious 
compound.  Jumbles  are  composed  of  about  one-third  flour,  one- 
quarter  sugar,  and  above  one-third  of  eggs,  milk,  and  butter. 
Soft  cakes  contain  nearly  half  melted  butter.  Butter  and 
eggs  make  up  above  half  of  a  cake  called  wonders ;  and 
wondrous  unhealthy  it  must  be.  Above  half  of  even  plain 
gingerbread  consists  of  cream,  butter,  molasses,  and  ginger. 
Of  composition  cake,  only  one-fourth  is  flour,  and  nearly  three- 
fourths  eggs,  butter,  cream,  and  brandy  ;  a  full  quarter  being 
melted  cream  and  butter.  In  view  of  the  four  facts,  first,  that 
melted  butter,  and  of  course  fat  and  cream  are  among  the  most 
indigestible  things  eaten  ;  secondly,  that  about  half  of  most 
of  our  cakes  are  composed  of  these  articles  j  thirdly,  that 


, 


106  FARINACEOUS   FOOD. 

about  one-quarter  consists  of  eggs  baked  nearly  or  quite  an 
hour;  and  fourthly,  that  grease  mixed  with  flour  is  digested 
with  extreme  difficulty,  it  is  submitted  whether  cakes  are  not, 
of  necessity,  most  unwholesome.  Add  to  all  this,  that  nearly 
a  fifth  of  the  frosting  of  bakers'  cake  is  composed  of  oxides 
of  lead,  to  impart  color ;  who  that  eats  cake  but  must  impair 
the  stomach,  engender  disease,  and  hasten  death  ?  Our  an- 
cestors ate  little  cake,  yet  their  descendants  think  they  cannot 
live  without  it;  and  a  mistaken  kindness  feeds  it  to  children 
as  freely  as  if  it  were  the  staff  of  life,  and  aggravates  the 
evil  by  feeding  it  BETWEEN  MEALS — of  which  anon. 

Pies  may  be  rendered  wholesome  or  unwholesome,  at  the 
option  of  the  maker.  The  union,  however  intimate,  of  bread 
and  fruit,  forms  the  best  diet  in  the  world.  Keep  out  short- 
ening and  spices,  and  you  may  live  wholly  on  pies.  And 
excellent  crust  can  be  made  of  flour,  potatoes,  and  milk,  or 
water,  without  shortening.  But  I  recommend  such  pies  and 
all  pies  to  be  eaten,  not  after  a  full  meal,  but  as  a  PART  of  it — 
and  as  the  FIRST  p#rt  rather  than  the  last ;  because  we  eat 
them  mainly  as  a  relish,  and  all  know  how  much  keener  the 
appetite  is  at  the  beginning  than  close  of  the  meal.  And  if 
cakes  must  be  eaten,  let  them  be  eaten  also  when  the  Chinese 
eat  their  relishes — first,  not  last ;  and  at  breakfast  instead  of 
supper. 

Though  we  nave  spoken  against  eggs  in  cake,  because 
baked  so  exceedingly  hard,  and  commingled  with  melted 
grease  ;  yet  eggs,  properly  cooked,  are  undoubtedly  wholesome 
and  nutritious,  as  they  certainly  are  exceedingly  palatable. 
They  contain  great  quantities  of  carbon,  and  also  gluten,  fibrin, 
and  the  very  compounds  required  by  animal  economy.  They 
are  especially  good  for  children.  Yet  very  much  depends  on 
the  mode  of  cooking  them.  Fried  in  grease,  as  "  ham  and 
eggs,"  or  "  pojrk  and  eggs,"  they  are  hard  of  digestion,  as  well 
on  account  of  being  generally  over-done,  as  saturated  with 
melted  grease.  Poached  eggs  are  liable  to  a  similar  objec 
tion.  But  soft-boiled  eggs,  eaten  with  bread  or  other  substan- 
tial food,  are  as  useful  as  delicious.  We  recommend  little 
if  any  butter  or  salt,  because  a  little  practice  will  render  eggs 


CONDIMENTS.  107 

better  alone  than  seasoned.  Butter,  salt,  pepper,  everything 
mixed  with  them,  takes  from,  or  obscures  the  taste  of  the  eggs  ; 
yet  it  is  this  taste  which  makes  us  relish  eggs  as  eggs. 

SPICES  and  seasoning  are  thus  brought  up  for  inspection. 
Most  condiments  are  decidedly  injurious.  Their  very  nature 
is  irritating,  heating,  feverish.  Like  alcoholic  liquors,  they 
stimulate  temporarily  only  to  debilitate  ultimately.  They 
impart  no  inherent,  protracted  vigor  to  the  system,  but  only 
goad,  lash  up,  and  then  prostrate.  Especially  do  they  irritate, 
disease,  and  prostrate  the  stomach ;  and  this  organ  diseased, 
the  entire  system  suffers  similarly. 

But,  worst  of  all,  they  blunt  the  taste  and  disorder  the  ap- 
petite. They  necessarily,  and  always,  benumb  the  nerves 
they  touch,  and  of  course  deaden  the  power  of  taste,  as  well 
as  deteriorate  natural  relish.  They  induce  us  to  eat  too  much- 
because  they  temporarily  stimulate,  and  because  natural' rel- 
ish being  blunted,  we  eat  and  keep  eating,  vainly  attempting 
to  make  up  in  the  quantity  of  food  that  gustatory  pleasure  lost 
by  this  blunting  of  taste.  They  also  weaken  the  salivary 
glands.  Mustard,  peppers,  cloves,  ginger,  cinnamon,  and  the 
like,  I  never  eat ;  nor  would  I,  under  penalty  of  deteriorated 
relish  and  dyspeptic  consequences. 

Finally,  let  the  principle,  that  whatever  detracts  from  or 
obscures  the  natural  taste  of  food,  thereby  impairs  the  luxury 
of  eating,  be  always  borne  in  mind  and  put  in  practice.  The 
deliciousness  is  in  the  FOOD,  not  the  spices — in  the  bread,  n6t 
butter,  or  gravy,  or  sauce,  or  other  things  else  eaten  with  it 
as  relishes.  And  if  we  cannot  enjoy  simple  food  simply  pre- 
pared, we  cannot  enjoy  it  with  all  the  "  seasoning"  (improperly 
so  called)  with  which  it  can  be  cooked  or  eaten.  Whatever 
is  fit  for  food,  nature  has  already  seasoned  for  us  infinitely 
better  than  art  can  season  it 33.  And  since  condiments  both 
obscure  nature's  rich  flavors,  and  also  blunt  o.ur  powers  of 
perceiving  them,  to  say  nothing  of  their  deleterious  consequen- 
ces, practical  wisdom  dictates  that  food  should  be  eaten  with  as 
few  spices  and  relishes  as  possible.  Yet  modern  cookery  is  all 
seasoning — a  total  perversion  of  nature's  dietetic  simplicity. 

Confectionary  is  so  closely  allied  to  pastry  as  to  deserve  a 


109  FARINACEOUS    FOOD. 

passing  remark.  Ice-creams  are  probably  not  objectionable, 
except  when  the  stomach  is  over-heated.  Their  being  frozen 
is  their  greatest  objection.  They  may  be  eaten  at,  or  right 
after  meals,  with  comparative  impunity,  provided  they  are 
allowed  to  melt  first.  But  candies  in  all  their  forms  are  very 
detrimental,  because  so  very  rich  ;  because  colored  with  pois- 
onous ingredients ;  because  usually  eaten  between  meals  or  late 
at  night ;  and  especially  because  they  pervert  the  relish,  so 
that  natural  food  tastes  insipid,  and  rich  food  is  sought  to  fill  the 
vacuum  they  create.  They  are  exceedingly  liable  to  sour  on 
the  stomach,  which  they  always  overload,  and  thus  stupify  the 
brain,  breed  worms,  and  incite  disease.  Children  especially 
should  never  be  indulged  in  them.  They  also  soon  ruin  the 
teeth.  This  is  a  sure  sign  that  they  first  impair  the  stomach. 
But  of  these  relations  of  the  two  to  each  other,  hereafter. 
Confectionaries  are  public  curses. 

57.    FRUIT 

Next  deserves  consideration.  That  good  fruit  is  one  of  the 
most  delicious  articles  man  can  eat,  all  are  practical  witnesses. 
Honey  and  sugar  are  most  delicious  at  first,  but  soon  cloy, 
because  their  nutrition  is  so  highly  concentrated.  Not  so  with 
good  fruit.  Let  a  person  moderately  hungry,  sit  down  to  a 
plate  of  honey,  or  butter,  or  sugar,  and  be  loses  his  relish 
before  he  has  taken  a  tithe  of  the  real  gustatory  pleasure  he 
can  take  in  as  many  first-rate  peaches,  or  pears,  or  apricots, 
or  nectarines,  or  even  apples  or  berries,  as  his  stomach  will 
bear.  Than  delicious  fruit,  what  greater  dainty  can  be 
served  up  to  man  throughout  nature's  ceaseless  round  of  boun- 
ties ?  For  what  other  luxury  will  men  pay  as  high  a  prioe  ? 
Vergaluce  pears  often  command  one  dollar  per  dozen.  In 
France  they  often  sell  for  forty  cents  apiece,  and  fifty  cents  for 
a  peach  have  often  been  paid  in  Boston — more  than  treble  the 
cost  of  ice-cream,  than  which  they  are  certainly  more  deli- 
cious. Yet  there  are  still  better  fruits  than  these.  And  what 
is  more,  all  love  good  fruit.  See  how  fruit-crazy  all  children 
are.  See  what  enormous  quantities  of  pears,  peaches,  straw- 
berries, apples,  etc.,  are  consumed  in  our  cities. 


FRUIT.  109 

Now,  since  that  is  best  which  tastes  best33,  and  since  fruit 
relishes  better  than  anything  eaten,  therefore  it  is  the  most 
wholesome.  It  prevents  or  removes  constipation,  and  often 
acts  like  a  charm  upon  both  body  and  mind.  Different  con- 
stitutions require  different  kinds,  yet  ripe  fruit,  if  of  the  right 
kind,  is  better  even  in  sickness  than  medicine  ;  and,  eaten  with 
good  bread,  nothing  is  equally  palatable  or  wholesome.  This 
never  cloys  the  appetite  or  clogs  the  stomach,  but  keeps  the 
bowels  open,  head  clear,  passions  cool,  and  the  entire  man 
healthy  and  happy.  Just  try  the  experiment.  Sit  down  to  a 
breakfast  of  first-rate  fruit  and  Graham  bread,  and  say  if  it  is 
not  the  best  breakfast  you  ever  ate.  Than  peaches  cut  up 
and  sweetened  at  supper,  what  is  more  delicious  ?  Or  than 
strawberries  and  cream  with  bread  ?  Of  choice  pears  this  is 
still  more  true.  Nor  are  berries  with  bread  and  milk  so  very 
inferior  eating.  And  when  none  of  these  can  be  obtained, 
good  apples,  baked  or  raw,  relish  right  well. 

If  it  be  objected  that  these  choice  fruits  last  but  a  short  time, 
the  answer  is,  that  nature  provides  us  with  a  perpetual  round 
of  them  from  May  to  November.  Apples  keep  the  entire 
year,  and  pears  of  the  very  best  varieties  can  be  kept  till  the 
appearance  of  strawberries  the  next  year.  A  friend  of  the 
author  had  plums — Coe's  golden  drop — the  first  of  June, 
which  he  had  kept  perfectly  sound  all  winter,  and  the  frost 
damson  keeps  till  November ;  while  the  amber  prim  ordium 
ripens  early  in  July.  Many  other  kinds  ripen  along  through 
the  winter  and  spring.  Pears  and  plums  can  be  kept  the  year 
round  as  easily  as  apples ;  and  summer  fruits,  by  bottling, 
can  be  kept  perfectly  fresh  a  year.  And  by  the  use  of 
hot-houses,  fruit  can  be  picked  from  the  trees  in  winter  01 
spring. 

We  can  also  preserve  them  or  make  them  into  jellies.  Yet 
this  process,  besides  deteriorating  from  their  flavor,  impairs 
their  digestibility.  Preserves  are  too  rich.  Their  nutrition 
is  too  much  concentrated.  Yet  the  virtue  of  the  juice  can  be 
extracted  and  then  DRIED,  so  as  to  preserve  its  original  flavor 
and  dietetic  utility.  Or  most  kinds  of  fruit  can  be  dried,  and 
thus  kept,  though  this  process  dries  out  much  of  its  goodness 
10 


110  FARINACEOUS    FOOD. 

as  well  as  sweetness.  Yet  dried  fruit  stewed,  is  far  better 
than  none. 

Stewed  apples  sweetened,  make  an  excellent  relish  with 
bread.  Nor  does  the  addition  of  butter  increase  its  palata- 
bleness,  but  rather  lessens  it.  Yet  apple-sauce  should  be 
made  every  few  days,  and  not  made  so  rich  as  to  keep  all 
winter.  Yet,  after  all,  nothing  equals  simple  bread  and  choice 
fruit,  if  people  only  knew  it,  both  for  health  and  luxury. 

In  general,  good  fruit  loses  much  of  its  flavor  and  virtue  by 
being  cooked.  Poor  fruit  may  be  improved  by  being  cooked 
and  sweetened ;  but  first-rate  fruit  and  bread  ought  to  be 
good  enough  for  a  prince ;  and  is  in  fact  the  best  pie,  and 
cake,  and  dessert,  in  the  world. 

GREEN  fruit,  however,  is  most  pernicious.  Nor  do  we  real- 
ize how  many,  especially  children,  lose  their  lives  directly  01 
indirectly  thereby.  Where  it  does  not  kill  immediately,  it 
often  deranges  the  stomach,  breeds  worms,  and  induces  other 
diseases  which,  sooner  or  later,  complete  the  work  of  death 
begun  by  green  fruit.  Adults  are  most  culpable  for  eating 
fruit  before  it  is  fully  ripe.  Nor  would  children  ever  eat  it  if 
supplied  freely  with  what  is  good.  Parents  should  see  to  it 
that  their  children  have  good  ripe  fruit  as  much  as  bread. 

Most  city  fruits,  especially  peaches,  are  picked  green,  so  that 
they  may  keep  the  longer.  Those  who  would  have  good  fruit 
must  RAISE  it — must  pick  it  from  their  OWN  vines  and  trees. 

Foreign  fruits  are  good,  but  indigenous  are  better.  Nature 
adapts  the  products  of  every  clime  to  its  dietetic  requisitions ; 
and  hence  has  made  those  fruits  to  flourish  best  in  every  clime 
which  its  inhabitants  require.  Yet  imported  fruits  augment 
variety,  and  those  which  will  keep  well  may  be  eaten  freely 
with  profit.  Of  these,  oranges,  lemons,  pine-apples,  bananas, 
and  nuts,  are  examples.  Lemonade  is,  in  the  author's  opin- 
ion, as  healthy  as  delicious.  Yet  he  founds  this  opinion  on 
experience  rather  than  science. 

58.    SWEETS 

Are  as  healthy  as  palatable33.  They  contain  starch  and 
oarbou  in  great  abundance,  and  these  a-re  two  of  the 


MILK,  BUTTER,  AND  CHEESE.  Ill 

pal  ingredients  required  in  the  nutritive  process.  Yet  they 
should  be  commingled  with  our  food  just  as  nature  has  mixed 
them  with  all  kinds  of  edibles.  Sugar  is  extracted  from  the 
cane,  the  beet,  and  the  maple,  and  even  from  corn-stalks  ;  and 
can  be  made  out  of  almost  anything  that  will  serve  for  food. 
It  should  therefore  be  duly  diluted,  and  then  rarely  cloys,  but 
greatly  enhances  the  palatableness  of  almost  everything  eaten, 
especially  of  "  flour  victuals."  Sweet  apples  and  fruit  are 
much  more  nutritious  than  sour,  and  greatly  facilitate  the  fat- 
tening of  stock. 

Molasses  is  especially  good ;  because,  besides  yielding  a 
great  amount  of  nourishment,  it  stimulates  the  intestinal  canal, 
and  thus  helps  to  evacuate  obstructions  and  wasted  matter. 
Eaten  with  Indian  meal  made  into  puddings  or  cakes,  it  be- 
comes highly  aperient,  and  thus  carries  off  causes  of  disease. 
Let  children  be  served  with  it  at  least  once  or  twice  a  week, 
nor  should  adults  eschew  it. 

Those  slaves,  and  even  cattle,  who  eat  of  the  cane  while 
extracting  its  sugar,  are  said  to  thrive  remarkably  well ;  and 
I  am  fully  persuaded  that  if  it  also  as  well  as  its  extract  were 
imported,  and  extensively  used  as  an  article  of  diet,  its  use- 
fulness would  be  great  indeed. 

Honey  is  also  most  delicious ;  and,  duly  mixed  with  other 
things,  may  be  eaten  with  profit,  especially  in  winter.  Yet 
not  in  summer,  because  it  is  highly  charged  with  carbon,  and 
of  this  less  is  required  in  summer,  but  much  in  winter.  In- 
deed, sweets  generally  should  be  eaten  more  sparingly  in 
warm  weather  than  in  cold. 

Yet,  when  honey  and  other  sweets  sour  on  the  stomach,  the 
latter  should  rarely  be  provoked  by  the  former. 

53.       MILK,    BUTTER,    AND    CHEESE, 

Are  highly  nutritious,  yet  not  wholly  unobjectionable. 
Milk  contains  casseine,  and  this  fibrine  and  albumen,  in  a 
highly  soluble  state,  so  that  they  can  be  easily  carried  to  all 
portions  of  the  system.  Milk  also  contains  nitrogen,  a  super- 
abundance of  which,  so  that  it  can  be  deposited  and  remain, 
is  essential  to  growth.  A  milk  diet  is  therefore  peculiarly 


112  FARINACEOUS   FOOD. 

adapted  to  promote  the  growth  of  children  and  youth,  and  the 
fact  that  nature  has  ordained  it  as  the  natural  food  of  infants, 
is  no  mean  guaranty  of  its  utility.  Its  promotion  of  the  growth 
of  young  swine,  still  further  recommends  it. 

Butter,  made  from  the  oily  properties  of  milk,  contains  a 
great  amount  of  carbon.  Its  nutrition,  like  that  of  sugar  and 
honey,  is  highly  concentrated.  Butter  also  soon  becomes 
rancid,  when  exposed  to  heat,  as  it  always  is  in  the  stomach, 
and  in  this  form  is  peculiarly  obnoxious.  It  often  causes 
cutaneous  eruptions,  biles,  and  the  like ;  and  eaten  in  warm 
weather,  and  in  those  quantities  in  which  it  is  generally  con- 
sumed, loads  the  system  with  corruption,  renders  many  mise- 
rable for  life,  and  hurries  thousands  into  untimely  graves. 

Cream  is  better  than  butter,  and  certainly  more  palatable, 
and  may  be  eaten  with  bread,  or  bread  and  fruit,  with  compar- 
ative impunity,  at  least  in  cold  weather.  Other  stomachs  may 
manage  butter,  but  mine  cannot,  except  in  small  quantities ; 
and  it  proves  detrimental  to  dyspeptics  generally.  Spread 
thin  upon  bread,  it  may  do  for  adults,  but  children  should  eat 
but  little,  and  be  satisfied  with  milk  in  its  stead.  Sweetened 
cream  is  far  more  palatable  and  less  objectionable. 

Milk  also  promotes  sleep,  and  hence  is  the  better  for  supper, 
especially  for  the  supper  of  children,  and  probably  for  the 
wakeful.  Sour  milk  and  butter-milk  sweetened,  are  probably 
both  nutritious  and  healthy — more  so  than  sweet  milk,  be- 
cause milk  must  be  curdled  before  it  can  be  digested.  The 
author  attributes  his  recovery  from  a  consumptive  attack  to 
the  use  of  butter-milk,  and  relishes  sour  milk  sweetened  much. 
The  Germans  strain  all  their  sweet  milk  into  sour,  and  thus 
curdle  it ;  and  some  cannot  eat  milk  unless  it  is  previously 
curdled.  Curdled  by  adding  sweet  cider,  it  becomes  delicious 
and  wholesome. 

Melted  butter,  as  eaten  on  warm  bread,  or  on  hot,  short,  or 
buckwheat,  or  wheaten  cakes,  is  most  pernicious.  I  must 
be  very  hungry,  before  I  eat  food  thus  exceedingly  unwhole- 
some. Meat  is  far  less  detrimental.  Buckwheat  cakes  of 
themselves  are  probably  harmless,  yet  swimming  in  melted 
butter  and  molasses,  they  can  be  borne  only  by  few.  Add 


VEGETABLES.  113 

milk  or  cream,  with  sugar,  or  molasses,  or  honey,  and  they 
are  even  more  delightful  to  the  palate  than  with  butter,  and 
doubtless  as  wholesome  as  delicious83.  Meat  fried  in  butter 
is  very  injurious.  When  the  system  is  in  want  of  carbon, 
butter  may  be  eaten  with  profit,  yet  cjeam  is  better;  but 
since  carbon  superabounds  in  almost  all,  so  as  to  cause  much' 
disease,  butter  only  enhances  both  this  superabundance  and  its 
diseased  consequences. 

Cheese  does  not  suit  some  stomachs,  the  author's  included, 
yet  may  not  be  peculiarly  unwholesome.  It  often  troubles 
children,  and  should  be  administered  to  them  sparingly,  if  at 
all.  Yet  pot-cheese,  made  of  sour  milk,  is  nutritious,  and 
probably  harmless. 

60.       PEAS,    BEANS,    POTATOES,    ONIONS,    BEETS,    CARROTS,    TURNIPS, 
SQUASHES, 

And  vegetables  generally,  may  be  eaten  freely,  with  profit. 
Ripe  beans  and  peas  contain  a  great  amount  of  nutrition, 
"  stick  to  the  ribs,"  make  good  blood,  and  should  not  be  al- 
lowed to  fall  into  disuse.  Made  into  soups  they  relish  well, 
and  constituted  a  standing  article  of  the  diet  of  our  ancestors. 
Daniel  of  old  fared  well,  and  looked  fair,  on  lentils. 

Potatoes,  a  recent  but  popular  article  of  diet,  deserve  all  the 
practical  estimation  in  which  they  are  held.  Though  not  very 
nutritious,  yet  on  this  very  account  they  "  fill  up,"  and  thus 
prevent  our  taking  excessive  nutrition  in  other  forms.  Baked, 
they  are  very  fine,  and  palatable  however  prepared.  Yet  they 
should  be  eaten  with  bread,  or  their  bulk  will  be  too  great 
for  their  nutrition.  Potatoe-starch  pudding  is  one  of  the 
most  nutritious  and  easily  digested  articles  of  diet  to  be 
found, 

Onions  are  both  palatable  and  wholesome.     The  French 
consume  them  freely.     They  are  especially  good  in  colds. 
The  ourang   outang,  when  suffering  from  colds,  eats   them 
'raw  in  great  quantities,  and  would  eat  nothing  else.     They 
are  aperient,  and  their  syrup,  sweetened,   relieves  oppressed 
lungs,  and   restores   suppressed  perspiration.     For  incipient 
infantile  colds,  it  is  admirable. 
10* 


114  FARINACEOUS    FOOD. 

Beets,  carrots,  and  turnips,  are  good  in  their  places.  Every 
family  should  feed  on  them  often.  Parsnips  are  probably  good, 
yet  rather  difficult  of  digestion. 

Cabbages  digest  with  difficulty,  and  yield  but  little  nourish- 
ment. Only  strong  stomachs  can  master  them. 

Greens  in  the  spring  are  aperient  and  healthy,  yet  need  not 
be  soaked  in  vinegar  to  be  rendered  palatable. 

Squashes  and  pumpkins  are  good,  either  stewed  or  eaten 
as  sauce,  or  with  bread,  or  made  into  plain  pies.  Yet  they 
should  not  be  spiced  to  death,  or  till  their  taste  is  nearly 
obliterated,  and  utility  rendered  doubtful 66.  To  some  consti- 
tutions, squash  is  especially  serviceable. 

61.       CUCUMBERS,    RADISHES,    AND    IMMATURE    ESCULENTS, 

Are  especially  injurious.  To  children  they  often  prove 
fatal.  They  ought  never  to  come  upon  the  table.  How  sen- 
sible persons  can  eat,  or  let  their  children  eat  them,  I  cannot 
imagine,  except  in  ignorance  of  their  dietetic  effects.  What, 
jeopard  life  for  a  momentary  gratification ! 

Green  corn  is  also  pernicious.  Green  corn,  cucumbers, 
and  radishes  never  appear  on  my  table,  when  only  my  own 
family  are  to  be  seated  at  it.  In  fact,  green  potatoes,  very 
young  peas  and  beans,  ana  immature  esculents  of  all  kinds, 
ought  never  ^to  be  eaten.  Wait  till  they  get  their  growth  and 
virtue. 

62.       NUTS, 

As  generally  eaten,  are  unwholesome,  for  two  reasons. 
They  are  often  eaten  between  meals,  which  we  shall  soon  see 
to  be  highly  injurious,  and  when  the  stomach  is  already  over- 
loaded'. Secondly,  they  contain  a  great  amount  of  carbon, 
and  thus  increase  that  superabundance  of  it  which  is  one  great 
cause  of  disease.  Yet  eaten  with,  and  as  a  part  of  food,  they 
would  undoubtedly  prove  highly  beneficial,  as  they  are  emi- 
nently nutritious  and  palatable33.  The  inhabitants  of  the 
South  of  France,  Savoy,  and  a  part  of  Italy,  live  almost  ex- 
clusively  on  chestnuts  during  fall  and  the  early  part  of  win- 
ter,  making  them  into  bread  and  puddings  in  place  of  flour. 


DIGESTION.  115 

Nuts  abound  in  vegetable  oil,  and  of  course  in  carbon,  and 
also  in  glutine  and  fibrine — three  of  the  most  important  ele- 
ments required  for  sustaining  life.  Yet  they  should  be  dried 
or  cooked.  But  we  shall  discuss  their  dietetic  value  more 
fully  when  we  come  to  speak  of  animal  heat. 

But  to  do  full  justice  to  this  whole  subject  of  the  selection 
of  food,  would  require  an  entire  volume.  This  our  restricted 
limits  prevent.  Yet  having  expounded  nature's  dietetic  land- 
marks,  the  reader  can  easily  fill  up  the  details. 


110  MASTICATION. 

SECTION  III. 

HOW    TO    EAT  r,    OR    MASTICATION,    QUANTITY,    TIME,   ETO. 
63.       MASTICATION. 

OUR  food  once  selected  in  accordance  with  the  foregoing 
principles,  the  next  question  is,  How  shall  it  be  eaten  ?  With 
teeth,  of  course,  never  with  the  stomach.  Nature  forbids  our 
throwing  it  into  its  receptacle  as  with  a  shovel.  By  rendering 
its  only  passage  way  small,  she  literally  COMPELS  us  to  deposite 
it  in  small  parcels.  She  has  also  furnished  us  with  a  mouth, 
set  all  around  with  two  rows  of  teeth,  which  fit  exactly  upon 
each  other,  and  are  every  way  adapted  to  crushing  our  food 
to  atoms,  as  will  be  seen  from  the  accompanying  engraving 
and  description  of  them.  Nor  can  we  swallow  our  food 
without  its  being  more  or  less  chewed. 

To  persuade  as  well  as  compel  such  mastication,  nature  has 
rendered  it  highly  PLEASURABLE.  Instead  of  food  being  taste- 
less,  she  has  given  it  a  far  more  delicious  flavor  than  all  the 
spices  of  India  could  impart.  Yet  man  does  not  know  how 
to  enjoy  a  tithe  of  the  gustatory  pleasure  she  has  appended  id 
eating.  Not  one  in  thousands  know  how  to  eat !  Not  tha 
all  do  not  know  how  to  eat  enough,  yet  tew  know  how  to  ea 
LITTLE  enough65.  All  know  how  to  eat  fast  enough,  but  verj 
few  know  how  to  eat  slowly  enough.  And  strange  as  it  may 
seem,  few  know  how  even  to  CHEW,  simple,  easy,  and  natural 
as  this  process  is!  Nine  hundred  and  ninety-nine  in  every 
thousand,  eat  mostly  with  their  STOMACHS  instead  of  with  theii 
teeth'!  One  would  think  that  this  poor  slave  had  to  perform 
two  or  three  times  its  wonted  task,  simply  to  digest  the  enor- 
mous quantities  of  heterogeneous  compounds  forced  upon  it, 
instead  of  being  compelled,  in  addition,  to  do  what  the  teeth 
should  previously  have  done.  Yet  this  practice  is  universal. 
Is  eating  indeed  so  very  onerous  a  task  that  it  should  thus  be 
hurried  and  slighted  ?  Most  men  pitch  and  shovel  in  their 
food  in  great  hunks,  mouthful  following  mouthful,  thick  and 


THE    TEETH. 


117 


64.       THE    TEETH— THEIR    NAMES    AND    DESCRIPTION. 


No.  7.     THE  TEETH. 


The  two  front  teeth  in  the  upper  jaw  ate  called  the  median  in- 
cisors ;  the  two  next  on  each  side  the  lateral  incisors  ;  the  two  next 
the  canines  or  eye  teeth ;  the  two  next  the  first  bicuspidati ;  and 
the  two  next  the  second  bicuspidati ;  the  six  next,  three  on  each 
side,  the  molars  or  sapientia — sixteen  in  all.  Those  opposite  to 
each  of  these  respectively,  in  the  under  jaw,  are  called  by  the  same 
names,  and  swell  the  entire  number  to  thirty-two. 

These  teeth  are  composed  of  bone,  cased  with  the  hardest  sub  • 
stance  in  the  human  body,  called  ENAMEL,  to  prevent  their  breaking. 
They  are  kept  in  their  places  by  fangs  and  muscles,  and  rendered 
sensitive  by  nerves  which  pass  up  into  them  by  fissures  or  holes  in 
the  centers  of  their  fangs.  The  inflammation  of  these  nerves  by 
exposure  occasions  the  todfcache. 


*18  HOW   TO    EAT. 

fast,  which  they  give  a  twist  or  two,  hit  a  crack  01  two,  and 
poke  down  "in  a  jiffy;"  eating  in  five  ntjnutes  as  much  as 
would  take  a  full  hour  to  eat  wel!N  Americans  generally 
treat  eating  as  they  treat  impertinent  customers — dismiss  it 
without  ceremony  for  something  appertaining  to  business.  Yet, 
than  the  due  FEEDING  of  the  body,  what  is  more  important29? 
Of  course  the  time  occupied  in  eating  should  correspond.  Be- 
sides,  how  can  we  expect  to  enjoy  the  gustatory  pleasure 
nature  has  associated  with  eating,  unless  we  take  ample  time 
for  such  enjoyment  ?  Instead  of  dispatching  our  meals  to  get 
to  business,  we  should  dispatch  business,  and  eat  at  perfect 
leisure.  We  should  never  sit  down  to  the  table  in  a  hurry, 
or  till  we  have  dismissed  from  the  mind  all  idea  that  we  have 
anything  else  on  hand,  and  should  then  eat  as  leisurely  as  if 
time  and  tide  waited  for  us.  The  ox  and  horse  eat  as  quietly 
as  though  their  food  was  their  all.  Only  swine  guttle  down 
their  food.  And  well  they  may  ;  for  their  tastes  are  so  coarse 
that  they  eat  what  is  most  loathsome,  and  derive  their  pleasure 
from  quantity  mainly.  Shall  man  imitate  the  swine  ?  Shall 
ne  bolt  his  food  and  hurry  off  to  business,  and  thus  forego  gus- 
tatory enjoyment,  and  also  shorten  his  days ;  thereby  curtail- 
ing that  very  business  he  is  so  anxious  to  do  ?  Take  ample 
time  to  eat  well,  and  you  will  live  probably  twice  as  long,  and 
this  protraction  of  life  will  enable  you  to  do  the  more  business. 
Eating  fast  is  the  worst  possible  stroke  of  business  policy  you 
can  adopt.  Let  business  stand,  while  you  eat  with  the  ut- 
most deliberation.  Let  NOTHING  hurry  you  to,  or  at,  or  from 
the  table.  Make  eating  a  PARAMOUNT  business,  and  the  acqui- 
sition of  wealth,  a  trifling  toy  in  comparison.  No  one  should 
deposite  an  ordinary  meal  in  less  than  an  hour.  How  foolish 
to  cram  it  down  with  swinish  voracity  in  five  minutes !  Yet 
sapheads  often  make  quick  eating  their  BOAST. 

Though  the  loss  of  gustatory  enjoyment — that  most  de- 
ii^htful  repast — consequent  on  eating  fast,  is  great  and  irre- 
parable, yet  this  is  one  of  its  smallest  and  lightest  evils. 
It  breaks  down  the  stomach,  and  fcus  unmans  and  diseases 
the  entire  systejn.  No  other  cause,  if  even  a  combination 
of  causes,  is  as  prolific  of  dyspepsia  and  all  its  dire  array 


MASTICATION.  119 

of  evils,  as  this.  We  have  not  overrated  the  importance  of  a 
due  selection  of  food,  yet  its  proper  mastication  is  far  more 
important.  Eat  slowly  and  masticate  thoroughly,  and  the 
kind  of  food  eaten,  however  noxious,  will  rarely  break  down 
the  stomach,  but  eating  the  best  selection  of  food  fast  will  ruin 
almost  any  stomach.  How  can  the  gastric  juice  penetrate  the 
food  unless  it  is  mashed  fine  ?  Food  deposited  in  chunks 
defies  its  solvent  power  for  a  lo'ng  time,  meanwhile  irritating 
and  weakening  its  power ;  whereas,  if  it  were  well  crushed 
before  it  entered  the  stomach,  this  juice  could  penetrate  or 
get  hold  of  it,  and  digest  it  before  fermentation  occurred. 

64.       SALIVA,  ITS  OFFICE,  AND  ADMIXTURE  WITH   FOOD. 

Nor  is  this  $11.  Food  must  be  thoroughly  SALIVATED  as  a 
means  of  being  thoroughly  crushed.  Hence  nature  has  sta- 
tioned five  glands  about  the  mouth,  two  at  the  back  part  of  the 
jaws  called  the  parotted,  two  at  the  sides  of  the  lower  jaw 
called  the  sub-maxillary,  and  one  under  the  tongue  called  the 
sublingual,  always  found  at  the  root  of  boiled  tongues,  which 
secrete  a  half-watery,  half-stringy  viscid  called  saliva,  and 
discharge  it  into  the  mouth  when  food  is  presented.  Chewing 
mingles  this  saliva  thoroughly  with  what  we  eat ;  nor  without 
it  can  we  grind  food  perfectly  fine,  as  all  troubled  with  dry- 
ness  of  the  mouth  while  eating,  will  witness.  Such  dryness 
is  occasioned  by  the  weakness  of  these  glands ;  but  when 
healthy,  the  presence  of  food  in  the  mouth  provokes  them  to 
secrete  and  discharge  great  quantities  of  this  saliva,  and  even 
the  sight  of  food  "  makes  the  mouth  water."  Tantalize  a 
hungry  dbg  a  few  minutes  with  the  sight  of  his  dinner  with- 
out giving  it  to  him,  and  this  saliva  will  run  out  at  the  cor- 
ners of  his  mouth,  and  hang  down  in  transparent  gelatinous 
strings.  That  clear,  tasteless  spittle  which  lubucrates  every 
healthy  mouth,  especially  while  eating,  is  composed  mainly 
of  saliva. 

This  secretion  was  not  created  for  nought.  It  fulfils  some 
IMPORTANT  end  in  the  nutritive  economy,  else  it  would  not 
exist — especially  in  such  great  abundance.  Probably  half  its 
virtues  are  not  yet  known  ;  but  the  following  chemical  analysis 


120  HOW    TO    EAT. 

of  it,  and  some  of  its  effects  on  food,  attest  both  its  utility  and 
absolute  necessity. 

"M.  Mialhe  has  recently  made  numerous  researches  with  refe- 
rence to  the  physiology  of  digestion.'  The  essential  basis  of  the 
alimentation  of  animals,  he  states,  is  constituted  by  three  distinct 
groups  of  bodies :  albuminous,  fatty,  and  saccharine  matters.  The 
labors  of  modern  chemists  have  shown  that  albuminous  substances 
become  assimilatable  through  the  assistance  of  the  gastric  juice, 
which,  by  its  acid,  swells  these <azotized  products,  and  by  ha  pepsin 
liquefies  them,  a  phenomenon  analogous  to  that  of  diastasis  on 
amidon.  Fatty  matter  becomes  assimilatable  by  the  intervention 
of  bile,  but  with  regard  to  feculaceous  and  saccharine  matter,  says 
M.  Mialhe,  there  is  nothing  positive  known.  This  lacuna  in  science 
he  has  endeavored  to  fill. 

"  The  new  facts  at  wliich  M.  Mialhe  has  arrived,  tend  to  show 
that  all  hydro-carbonaceous  substances  can  only  undergo  the  phe- 
nomenon of  assimilation  when  they  have  been  deqpmposed  by  the 
weak  alkaline  dissolutions  contained  in  the  vital  humors  ;  either  im- 
mediately, as  with  glucose,  dextrine,  sugar  of  milk;  or  mediately, 
as  with  cane-sugar  arid  amidon,  which  have  to  be  first  transformed 
in  the  economy,  the  one  (cane-sugar)  into  glucose,  the  other 
into  dextrine  of  glucose.  As  to  hydro-carbonaceous  substances, 
which  are  neither  susceptible  of- fermentation  nor  of  decomposition 
by  weak  acids,  or  alkalies  in  solution,  such  as  lignite  or  mannite, 
they  escape,  in  man,  the  digestive  and  assimilating  action.  But 
by  what  chemical  action  is  the  amidon  transformed  into  dextrine 
and  glucose  ?  Numerous  experiments  have  proved  to  M.  Mialho 
that  this  transformation  is  produced  by  the  saliva,  through  a  princi- 
ple which  the  humor  contains,  a  principle  comparable,  in  every 
respect,  to  diastasis.  In  order  to  isolate  it,  human  saliva,  first  fil- 
tered, is  treated  by  five  or  six  times  its  weight  of  alcohol,  alcohol 
being  added  until  precipitation  ceases.  The  animal  diastasis  is  de- 
posited in  white  flakes.  It  is  gathered  on  a  filter,  from  which  it  is 
taken  still  moist,  and  dried  in  layers  on  glass,  by  a  current  of  warm 
air,  at  a  temperature  of  from  40  to  50  degrees  (centigr;)  it  is  pre- 
served in  a  well-stoppered  bottle.  This  active  principle  of  the  saliva 
is  solid,  white,  or  of  a  grayish  white,  amorphous,  insoluble  in  alcohol, 
soluble  in  water  and  weak  alcohol.  The  aqueous  solution  is  insipid, 
neutral ;  the  sub-acetate  of  lead  does  not  give  rise  to  precipitate. 
Abandoned  to  itself,  it  soon  becomes  acid,  and  whether  or  not  in 
contact  with  the  air-  This  animal  diastasis,  studied  comparatively 
with  diastasis  extracted  from  germinating  barley,  presents  the  same 
mode  of  action.  It  transforms  amidon  into  dextrine  and  glucose; 
acting  on  starch,  and  elevating  the  temperature  to  70  or  80  degrees, 
the  liquefaction  is  nearly  immediate.  One  part  of  this  substance 
suffices  to  liquefy  and  convert  two  thousand. parts  of  fecula.  The 
agents,  such  as  creosote,  tannin,  the  powerful  acids,  the  salts  of 
mercury,  of  copper,  ol  silver,  etc.,  which  destroy  the  properties  of 
diastasis,  act  in  the  same  manner  with  respect  to  the  active  princi- 


MASTICATION.  121 

pie  of  saliva.  At  an  equal  weight  they  both  liquefy  and  transform 
the  same  quantity  of  hydrateckimidon.  It  appears,  even,  that  the 
active  principle  of  germinated  barley  is  seldom  as  energetic  as  that 
of  saliva,  which  is  owing  to  the  greater  facility  of  obtaining  the  lat- 
ter in  a  -pure  state.  Finally,  as  a  last  resemblance,  the  animal  dia- 
stasis  existing  in  the  saliva  of  man  rarely  exceeds  two  thousandths, 
and  this  is  exactly  the  proportion  of  the  diastasis  contained  in  the 
germinating  barley." — Lancet. 

Its  wonderful  solvent  powers — converting  TWO  THOUSAND 
TIMES  its  own  quantity  of  fecula — one  of  the  principal  ingredi- 
ents of  food,  and  its  liquefying  starch — is  the  point  to  which 
special  attention  is  invited.  It  thus  appears  that  saliva,  be- 
sides facilitating  mastication  and  deglutition — for  without  it 
food  would  be  too  dry  to  be  swallowed  easily — in  part  dis- 
solves the  food,  and  prepares  it  for  the  action  of  the  gastric 
juice  before  it  enters  the  stomach.  As  cotton  must  go  through 
several  PREPARATORY  processes  before  it  can  be  woven  ;  ground 
plowed  before  it  can  be  planted,  etc. ;  so  food  must  be  both 
ground  fine  by  mastication  and  saturated  with  saliva,  till  the 
starch  of  food,  one  of  its  most  nutritive  elements51,  is  liquefied 
and  prepared  for  the  digestive  process.  How  deeply  impor- 
tant, then,  that  we  thoroughly  chew  our  food,  and  also  that 
we  keep  these  salivary  glands  in  a  healthy,  sound,  and  vig- 
orous state !  The  stomach  has  abundance  of  hard  work  to 
perform,  after  thorough  mastication  and  salivation  have  pre- 
pared the  food  for  digestion.  Especially  is  this  true  of  weak 
stomachs.  Nor  can  the  digestive  process  be  complete,  or 
make  good  blood,  without  this  preparation.  The  reader  will 
please  note  this  principle,  as  we  shall  found  several  impor- 
tant directions  to  dyspeptics  on  it,  when  we  come  to  treat  of 
Jie  cure  of  disordered  digestion. 

The  food  is  next  swallowed,  or  passed  down  the  sesophagus, 
or  meat-pipe — a  long  duct  connected  with  the  back  part  of  the 
mouth,  (see  engraving  of  the  stomach,)  and  furnished  with 
longitudinal  and  transverse  fibres,  which,  contracting  from 
above  downwards,  impels  its  contents  down  into  the  stomach  ; 
but,  contracting  from  below  upwards,  as  in  vomiting,  expels 
the  contents  of  the  stomach  upwards,  into  and  out  at  the  mouth, 

often  with  great  force. 
11 


122  QUANTITY. 

65.      THE    RIGHT   QUANTITY   OF   FOOD. 

Important  as  are  its  right  selection  and  due  mastication  and 
salivation,  its  QUANTITY  is  probably  still  more  so.  Unwhole- 
some kinds  engender  far  less  disease  and  suffering  than  ex- 
cess in  AMOUNT.  Health  and  disease  depend  vastly  more 
on  HOW  MUCH  we  eat,  than  what.  Many,  especially  dyspep- 
tics, far  more  than  counterbalance  all  the  good  effects  of  a 
plain  diet,  by  over-eating.  Not  that  the  gormandizing  of 
plain  food  is  not  far  less  injurious  than  that  of  unwholesome 
kinds,  but  that  excess  in  quantity  is  even  more  unhealthy  than 
quality.  Nor  is  it  exaggeration  to  say,  that  most  civilized  na 
tions,  and  even  individuals,  make  perfect  gluttons  of  themselves. 
This  is  doubly  true  of  Americans.  An  English  Quaker  on 
his  return  from  a  transatlantic  tour,  when  asked  what  he 
thought  of  the  Yankees,  re-turned  answer  that  "  Their  men 
are  all  gluttons,  and  their  women  all  slaves."  Notice  the 
disappearance  of  dishful  after  dishful,  and  even  tableful  after 
tableful,  at  our  public  and  private  meals.  Watch  your  own 
plate,  and  notice  how  many  times,  though  it  is  loaded  to  begin 
with,  you  "  back  up  your  cart"  for  another  load.  All  this 
besides  the  desserts.  Though  we  may  not  eat  as  much  as  the 
Indians,  who  are  reputed  by  several  travellers  to  stuff  them- 
selves with  from  six  to  fifteen  pounds  of  meat  per  day,  when 
Uiey  can  get  it,  and  even  eat  a  great  portion  of  their  time,  yet, 
on  the  average,  we  eat  at  least  from  two  to  three  times  more 
than  nature  requires.  Nearly  every  reader  will  bear  the 
self-condemning  witness,  that  he  often  eats  so  enormously  as 
to  feel  uncomfortable,  stupid,  and  often  almost  sick ;  and  most 
who  will  omit  an  occasional  meal,  will  feel  twice  as  well  for 
a  day  or  two  afterwards.  But,  to  bring  our  remarks  to  a 
point,  notice 

66.       THREE    CLASSES    OF   FACTS, 

Everywhere  observable.  Dyspeptics  eat  enormously- — 
nearly  twice  as  much  as  ordinary  persons,  while  those  who 
enjoy  PERFECT  health,  and  have  never  been  sick,  eat  less  than 
half  as  much  as  others,  and  not  a  quarter  as  much  as  dyspep- 
tics. The  bully  of  the  Erie  Canal  in  1837,  and  of  course  the 


MASTICATION.  123 

strongest,  spriest,  and  toughest  man  of  all  those  powerful 
navigators  of  that  extended  water,  ate  less  than  half  as  much 
as  the  average  of  his  passengers.  A  comb-factory  man  in 
Newbury,  Mass.,  who  has  always  enjoyed  the  very  best  of 
health,  is  surprisingly  abstemious  in  the  quantity  of  his  food. 
Aged  persons  usually  eat  very  little,  and  hence  their  length  of 
life.  Men  of  great  talents  and  virtues  usually  practice  rigid 
abstinence.  Wesley  furnished  a  noted  example.  See  what 
he  did  and  endured — how  little  he  ate  and  how  often  he  fasted. 
And  Bible  recommendations  and  requisitions  of  fasting  are 
undoubtedly  founded  on  this  law. 

Fleshy  persons  usually  eat  lightly,  while  spare  persons,  the 
world  over,  are  generally  great  eaters.  The  reason  is  this : 
What  the  former  do  eat,  they  completely  digest,  extracting 
from  it  all  its  sustaining  virtue,  so  that  they  need  but  little ; 
whereas  gourmands  disorder  their  stomachs,  so  that  the  enor- 
mous quantities  they  consume  are  not  converted  into  nourish- 
ment. A  little  food,  well  assimilated,  yields  far  more  nutri- 
tion and  life  than  quantities  crudely  digested.  In  fact,  glut- 
tony doubly  starves  its  subjects ;  first  enfeebling  and  di§order- 
ing  digestion,  so  that  it  cannot  extract  the  nourishment  from 
food,  and  secondly,  by  a  gnawing,  hankering,  craving  state  of 
the  stomach,  akin  to  starvation. 

67.   PARR,  CORNARO,  DR.  CHEYNE,  DR.  JOHNSON,  AND  OTHERS. 

Old  Parr,  who  became  a  father  after  he  was  one  hundred 
and  twenty,  and  retained  his  health  and  all  his  faculties  un- 
impaired till  he  visited  the  royal  court,  aged  one  hundred  and 
fifty-two,  died  in  about  a  year,  from  slightly  letting  down  his 
extreme  abstemiousness. 

Louis  Cornaro,  who,  by  abandoning  those  excesses  which 
broke  his  constitution  and  threatened  him  with  death  at  thirty- 
six,  baffled  disease  in  its  most  aggravated  form,  by  confining 
himself  to  less  than  twelve  ounces,  of  solid  and  exclusively 
vegetable  food  per  day,  was  over-persuaded  to  increase  this 
quantity  only  two  ounces,  the  effects  of  which  he  describes 
as  follows :  "  This  increase,  in  eight  days,  had  such  an  effect 
upon  me,  that  from  being  remarkably  cheerful  and  brisk,  1 


124      CORNARO,  LLOYD,  CHEYNE,  AND  JOHNSON. 

began  to  be  peevish  and  melancholy,  and  was  constant!/  so 
strangely  disposed,  that  I  neither  knew  what  to  say  to  others, 
nor  what  to  do  with  myself.  On  the  twelfth  day  I  was  at- 
tacked with  a  violent  pain  in  my  side,  which  held  me  twenty- 
two"  hours,  and  was  followed  by  a  violent  fever,  which  contin- 
ued thirty-five  days,  without  giving  me  a  moment's  respite." 
This  was  his  only  sickness  during  sixty-three  years  of  abste- 
miousness. 

Richard  Lloyd,  "  a  strong,  straight,  upright  man,  wanting 
no  teeth,  having  no  gray  hairs,  fleshy  and  full  cheeked,  and 
the  calves  of  his  legs  not  wasted  or  shrunk,  his  hearing, 
sight,  and  speech,  as  good  as  ever,"  at  one  hundred  and  thirty 
years  of  age,  being  persuaded  to  substitute  a  meat  and  malt- 
liquor  diet,  for  one  consisting  exclusively  of  bread,  butter, 
cheese,  whey,  and  buttermilk  with  water,  "  soon  fell  off  and 
died." 

Dr.  Cheyne  reduced  his  weight  from  four  hundred  and 
forty-eight  to  one  hundred  and  forty  pounds  by  abstinence, 
grew  corpulent  and  sick  on  a  more  generous  diet,  and  was 
restor.ed  by  abstemiousness.  His  practical  and  theoretical 
model  was,  "  The  lightest  and  least  of  meat  and  drink  a  man 
can  be  tolerably  easy  under,  is  the  shortest  and  most  infallible 
means  to  preserve  life,  health,  and  serenity." 

Dr.  James  Johnson,  one  of  the  ablest  of  modern  physiolo- 
gists, who  cured  himself  of  an  aggravated  dyspeptic  malady 
by  rigid  abstemiousness,  and  then  wore  out  two  armies,  in  two 
wars,  and  thought  he  could  wear  out  another,  says :  "  The 
quantity  should  never  exceed  half  a  pound  in  weight  at  din- 
ner, even  when  that  can  be  borne  without  a  single  unpleasant 
sensation  succeeding.  It  is  quite  enough,  and  generally  too 
much.'  The  invalid  will  acquire  a  degree  of  strength  and 
firmness,  not  fulness,  of  muscle,  on  this  quantity,  which  *vill, 
in  time,  surprise  his  friends  as  well  as  himself."  "  Such  will 
often  derive  more  nourishment  and  strength  from  four  ounces 
of  gruel  every  six  hours,  than  from  half  a  pound  of  animal 
food  and  a  pint  of  wine." 


125 

8.      THE  AUTHOR'S  EXPERIENCE 

Fully  confirms  these  converging  testimonials.  When  so 
crowded  with  professional  calls  that  he  was  obliged  to  postpone 
meals  or  dismiss  customers,  he  occasionally  chose  the  former, 
and  soon  found  that  it  doubled  and  trebled  his  capability  to 
endure  mental  labor;  and  soon  adopted  the  practice  of  fasting 
whenever  he  was  pressed  with  business,  and  preparatory  to 
lecturing.  To  eat  supper  before  lecturing,  always  greatly 
mars  and  enfeebles  both  matter  and  manner,  so  that  he  always 
prepares  himself  for  the  desk  by  fasting ;  and  to  write  on  a 
full  stomach  is  an  utter  impossibility.  No  one  who  has  not 
frequently  practised  rigid  abstemiousness  in  quantity  as  well  as 
quality,  can  appreciate  the  far  greater  flow  of  thoughts,  words, 
and  facts,  and  the  enhanced  clearness  of  mind  and  inten- 
sity of  feeling,  produced  by  fasting.  It  may  indeed  be  carried 
so  far  as  to  prostrate,  yet  even  a  state  of  hunger  quickens 
mental  action,  while  a  full  meal  is  as  lead  tied  to  the  soar- 
ing eagle.  I  find  the  less  I  eat  the  more  T  think.  I  have 
crippled  months  and  years  of  my  precious  life  by  over- 
loading my  stomach,  and  thus  proclaim  my  own  faults 
that  others  may  take  warning.  But  I  am  determined  to 
commit  this  sin  no  more.  Shall  I — will  you — longer  fetter 
the  immortal  MIND,  by  indulging  appetite  ?  Shall  propensity 
blight  the  godlike  powers  of  the  human  soul  ?  Gluttony  is 
the  great  sand-bank  of  mind.  Nor  is  there  any  telling  how 
much  abstinence  would  enhance  the  progress  of  our  scholars, 
the  mental  and  moral  powers  and  consequent  usefulness  of 
ministers,  and  the  intellectual  acumen  of  all  who  require 
mental  strength  and  activity.  Nor  do  the  feelings  escape  this 
palsying  grasp  of  over-eating.  They  even  suffer  most.  It 
blunts  and  benumbs  all  our  keener,  finer,  holier  emotions,  and 
curtails  enjoyment  more  universally  and  effectually  than  al- 
most any  other  cause,  besides  all  the  untold  anguish  of  body 
and  mind  it  induces.  The  extent  and  magnitude  of  the  evils 
of  intemperance  in  drinking,  though  they  far  exceed  even  the 
glowing  descriptions  of  all  its  opponents  combined,  fall  far, 
very  far,  below  the  evils  of  excessive  eating.  The  formei 
are  limited  comparatively  to  few ;  the  latter  is  almost  universal, 
11* 


126  QUANTITY. 

and  practised  fum  the  cradle  to  the  grave.  Mothers  begin 
by  choking  their  infants  with  the  breast  every  time  they  cry, 
though  this  very  crossness  is  generally  occasioned  by  exces- 
sive nursing ;  and  still  aggravate  the  evil  by  stuffing,  stuffing, 
stuffing  their  children  with  pies,  cakes,  candies,  nuts,  apples, 
and  the  like,  from  the  time  they  rise  till  they  retire,  year  in 
and  year  out,  so  that  most  children  GROW  UP  gourmands.  And 
this  soul-and-body  destroying  habit  "  grows  with  our  growth, 
and  strengthens  with  our  strength." 

"I  tell  you  honestly,"  says  Dr.  Abernethy,  "what  I  think 
is  the  cause  of  the  complicated  maladies  of  the  human  race. 
It  is  their  gormandizing,  and  stimulating,  and  stuffing  their 
digestive  organs  to  excess,  thereby  producing  nervous  disor- 
ders and  irritation."  Another  eminent  medical  writer  says : 
"  It  is  the  opinion  of  the  majority  of  the  most  distinguished 
physicians,  that  intemperance  in  diet  destroys  the  bulk  of  man- 
kind." "  Most  of  all  the  chronic  diseases,  the  infirmities  of 
old  age,  and  the  short  period  of  the  lives  of  Englishmen,  are 
owing  to  repletion." 

"  And  I  do  firmly  believe,"  says  President  Hitchcock,  "  that 
scarcely  any  sedentary  or  literary  man  can  exceed  from 
twelve  to  sixteen  ounces  of  solid  food,  and  from  fourteen  to 
twenty-four  of  liquid  per  day,  and  keep  within  the  bounds  of 
temperance."  Soldiers  are  more  vigorous  and  healthy  on 
scant  than  on  full  rations.  Pugilists  are  fitted  for  the  bloody 
ring,  and  horses  for  the  race,  by  great  abstemiousness  com- 
bined with  extreme  exertion  of  muscle,  which  proves  that 
abstinence  facilitates  labor.  In  short,  every  dietetic  fact  and 
principle  goes  to  establish  these  two  conclusions,  that  all  eat 
double  the  quantity  of  food  necessary  for  the  attainment  of  the 
highest' state  of  mental  and  physical  vigor  and  endurance,  and 
that  over  eating  is  the  great  cause  of  modern  disease  and  do- 
pravity.  One  and  all,  TRY  ABSTEMIOUSNESS  :  the  well,  that 
they  may  retain  and  enhance  health;  invalids,  that  they 
may  banish  feebleness  and  maladies,  and  again  enjoy  the 
blessings  of  health ;  the  literary,  that  they  may  augment 
mental  efficiency  ;  laborers,  that  they  may  increase  working 
and  capability,  and,  above  all,  the  sedentary,  that  thev 


NATURAL   APPETITE   AS   A    TEST.  127 

may  ward  off  the  impending  evils  of  confinement  within  doors. 
I  would  have  no  one  eat  one  mouthful  too  little — rather  too 
much,  for  nature  can  cast  off  surplus  food  better  than  supply 
or  endure  its  deficiency — but  the  exact  quantity  most  promo- 
tive  of  strength,  talents,  and  happiness,  is  incalculably  prefer- 
able to  either  too  much  or  too  little.  How  much  is  best  we 
proceed  to  show. 

69.      APPETITE,    A    TEST    OF   THE    PROPER    QUANTITY  OF   FOOD. 

Appetite  is  a  perfectly  certain  guide  to  quantity  as  well  as 
kind 33,  when  it  is  normal  or  unperverted.  We  have  too  often 
proved  the  principle  here  involved  to  require  its  repetition. 
Yet,  alas !  so  perverted  is  the  natural  appetite  of  almost  all, 
that  it  is  a  drunken  pilot  in  a  storm.  Indeed,  it  is  far  worse 
than  no  guide,  for  it  leads  ASTRAY.  To  lose  this  infallible 
guide  in  so  important  a  matter,  is  most  unfortunate ;  but  by 
constantly  tempting  to  over  eat,  it  engenders  a  great  portion 
of  those  very  maladies  and  sufferings  you  and  I,  reader,  and 
all  mankind,  experience,  and  is  abridging  the  period  of  our 
and  their  existence  at  least  one  half! 

The  fact  of  this  abnormal  condition  of  appetite  is  rendered 
apparent  by  its  cause.  That  a  most  intimate  inter-relation 
exists  between  the  stomach  and  Alimentiveness  is  rendered 
perfectly  clear  both  by  Phrenology  and  Philosophy.  Th& 
latter  is  the  organ  of  the  former,  and  therefore  the  inter-relation 
of  all  their  states  with  each  other  is  perfectly  reciprocal I7. 
This  reciprocity  must  be  perfect,  in  order  that  when  the 
stomach  requires  food,  it  may  excite  the  feeling  of  hunger  in 
Alimentiveness.  But  for  such  inter-relation,  the  stomach 
could  never  make  known  its  requisitions  for  food.  The  per- 
fection of  the  nutritive  process  demands  such  reciprocity,  and 
that  it  be  PERFECT.  Whatever,  therefore,  inflames  the  stom- 
ach, thereby  excites  Alimentiveness  and  creates  cravings  akin 
to  hunger.  Excess  of  food  necessarily  inflames  the  stomach, 
and  of  course  always  provokes  those  hankerings  after  food, 
which  most  of  us  mistake  for  real  hunger.  Yet  such  cravings 
are  caused,  not  by  hunger,  but  by  SURFEITING.  .  This  shows 
v  <iy  dyspeptics  generally  have  such  enormous  appetites. 


128  QUANTITY. 

They  have  inflamed  their  stomachs,  and  this  renders  their 
appetite  morbid,  and  its  cravings  insatiable.  And  the  more 
such  eat,  the  more  they  crave.  Let  them  eat  and  eat  by  the 
hour  together,  they  still  feel  what  they  call  hungry,  though  it 
is  to  true  hunger  what  fever  is  to  the  circulation.  Eating,  so 
far  from  sating  this  morbid  craving,  only  enhances  it.  True, 
they  feel  weak,  gone,  faint,  and  ravenous — feel  that  they 
shall  drop  down,  unless  they  can  get  something  to  eat  soon—- 
yet the  more  they  eat  the  more  they  crave,  because  the  more 
they  inflame  the  stomach,  and  of  course  its  cerebral  organ, 
Alimentiveness.  Cannot  such  see  that  they  eat  twice  as 
much  as  men  in  general,  and  four  times  more  than  many 
around  them  who  enjoy  uninterrupted  health  ?  How  can 
they  require  so  much  when  others  get  along  so  much  better 
with  so  little  ?  What  could  more  conclusively  prove  that 
both  their  craving  and  diseases  proceed  from  their  gluttony  ? 
And  what  establishes  this  point  beyond  a  doubt,  is  that  pro- 
tracted  abstemiousness  will  diminish  these  stomatic  gnaw- 
ings.  Make  trial,  ye  thus  afflicted,  and  you  will  be  surprised 
at  their  decrease.  And,  in  general,  those  who  feel  faint  in 
the  morning  till  they  eat,  ravenous  before  dinner,  and  hungry 
before  supper,  should  attribute  these  cravings  to  an  OVER- 
LOADED stomach  instead  of  to  an  empty  one.  And  they  who 
differ  much  from  omitting  a  meal  may  depend  upon  it  that 
they  over  eat.  Fasting  gives  little  inconvenience  to  healthy 
stomachs  ;  nor  is  there  a  more  sure  feign  of  gluttony  than 
these  hankerings,  and  this  faintness  when  a  meal  is  omitted. 
Contradictory  though  it  may  seem,  yet  of  all  such  cravings 
persevering  abstemiousness  is  a  perfect  cure,  because  it  allays 
that  irritation  of  the  stomach  which  causes  them,  and  which 
full  feeding  enhances,  and  thereby  reinflames  appetite.  Only 
try  its  virtues,  ye  thus  afflicted.  FAST  instead  of  feast ;  and 
keep  fasting  till  you  can,  like  those  in  health,  omit  meal  after 
meal  with  little  inconvenience  or  prostration.  Especially 
should  such  omit  supper,  and  drink  copiously  of  cold  water 
an  hour  before  breakfast. 

"  Whenever,"  says  Dr.  James  Johnson,  "  our  food  is  followed 
by  inaptitude  for  mental  ;*:  corporeal  exertion,  we  have  trans- 


EXCESS    IN    QUANTITY.  129 

gressed  the  rules  of  health,  and  are  laying  the  foundation  for  dis- 
ease. Any  discomfort  of  body,  any  irritability  or  despondency 
of  mind,  succeeding  food  and  drink,  at  the  distance  of  an  hour, 
a  day,  or  even  two  or  three  days,  may  be  regarded,  other 
evident  causes  being  absent,  as  a  presumptive  proof  that  the 
quantity  ha-s  been  too  much,  or  the  quality  injurious.  If  a 
few  hours  after  his  dinner,  he  feel  a  sense  of  distension  in  the 
stomach  and  bowels,  or  any  of  the  symptoms  of  indigestion 
which  have  been  pointed  out ;  if  he  feel  a  languor  of  body, 
or  a  cloudiness  of  the  mind ;  if  he  have  a  restless  night ;  if 
he  have  experienced  a  depression  of  spirits,  or  irritability  of 
temper  next  morning,  his  previous  meals  have  been  too  much, 
or  improper  in  kind,  and  he  must  reduce  and  simplify  till  he 
come  to  that  quantity  and  quality  of  food  and  drink  for  dinner, 
which  will  produce  little  or  no  alteration  in  his  feelings, 
whether  of  exhilaration  immediately  after  dinner,  or  of  dis- 
comfort some  time  after  this  meal.  This  is  the  criterion  by 
which  the  patient  must  judge  for  himself." 

The  fact  is,  we  may  accustom  ourselves  to  eat  little  or  much 
at  pleasure,  with  this  difference,  that  the  former  habit  leaves  the 
muscles  and  brain  unoppressed  an-d  active  ;  the  latter  stupefies 
the  whole  man  by  diverting  the  energies  from  all  the  other  or- 
gans and  concentrating  them  in  the  brain.  Agents  and  tourists 
among  the  Indians  concur  in  the  declaration  that  they  will  eat 
from  six  to  fifteen  pounds  of  meat  in  the  twenty-four  hours, 
spending  most  of  their  time  in  eating  it  when  they  can  get  it. 
"  For  a  few  days,"  says  Captain  Duval,  "  after  getting  into 
camp,  he  will  eat  from  eight  to  ten  pounds,  and  for  the  first 
day  or  two  would  even  exceed  that  quantity."  "  The  Osages," 
says  Captain  Rogers,  "  often  eat  from  ten  to  fifteen  pounds  of 
fresh  meat  in  the  course  of  the  twenty-four  hours,  particularly 
on  returning  from  a  fatiguing  hunt,  when  I  have  no  doubt 
they  frequently  consume  from  five  to  six  pounds  at  a  meal." 
Mayor  Armstrong  says,  "  They  would  consume  from  six  to 
eight  pounds  per  day," — a  quantity  "  under  instead  of  over  the 
true  estimate."  Mr.  Robert  Cook  says,  "I  have  seen  a  prairie 
Indian  eat  and  destroy,  upon  his  arrival  in  camp,  fifteen 
pounds  of  beef  in  twenty-four  hours.  I  am  further  of  opinion 


130  FARINACEOUS    FOOD. 

that  they  will  eat  daily  ten  pounds  throughout  the  year." 
Of  the  amount  of  food  eaten  by  the  Esquimaux,  John  Ross 
says,  "  Their  consumption  of  food  is  enormous,  and  often 
incredible.  They  eat,  perhaps,  twenty  pounds  of  flesh  and 
oil  da.ly."  Sir  W.  E.  Percy  weighed  out  to  a  half-grown 
Esquimaux  boy  eight  pounds  of  sea-horse-flesh,  one  pound 
twelve  ounces  of  bread,  one  pint  and  a  quarter  of  rich  gravy 
soup,  a  gallon  of  water,  and  six  wine-glasses  of  spirits,  a 
"  quantity  no  way  extraordinary." 

Of  the  Siberian  Yakuti,  Captain  Cochran  says  the  Russian 
Admiral  Saritcheif  gave  to  a  Yakut,  who  was  said  to  have 
eaten  in  twenty-four  hours,  "  the  hind  quarter  of  a  large  ox, 
twenty  pounds  of  fat,  and  a  proportionate  quantity  of  melted 
butter  for  his  drink" — "a  thick  porridge  of  rice  boiled  down  with 
three  pounds  of  butter,  weighing  together  twenty-eight  pounds, 
and  although  the  glutton  had  already. breakfasted,  yet  did  he 
sit  down  to  it  with  great  eagerness,  and  consume  the  whole 
without  stirring  from  the  spot."  Captain  Cochran  adds,  that 
a  good  calf,  weighing  two  hundred  pounds,  "may  serve  four 
or  five  good  Yakuti  for  a  single  meal.  I  have  seen  three  of 
these  gluttons  consume  a  reindeer  at  a  single  meal." 

Barrow  says,  "  Ten  of  our  Hottentots  ate  a  middling  sized 
ox,  all  but  the  two  hind  legs  in  three  days,  but  they  had  very 
little  sleep  during  the  time,  and  had  fasted  the  two  proceeding 
days.  With  them  the  word  is  eat  or  sleep."  He  adds  of  the 
Bosgesmans,  "  The  three  who  accompanied  us  to  our  waggons, 
had  a  sheep  given  to  them  about  five  in  the  evening,  which 
they  entirely  consumed  before  noon  the  next  day." 

The  author's  father  once  knew  a  glutton  who  ate  two 
chickens,  with  the  •  usual  accompaniements  of  bread  and 
sauce,  and  called  for  more.  The  dinner,  prepared  for  eight 
workmen,  was  next  brought  on.  which  he  dispatched,  they  not 
having  been  called,  and  when  he  called  for  more  still,  bread 
and  a  cheese  were  set  on.  When  the  landlord  reproved  him 
for  cutting  the  cheese  in  slices  instead  of  in  towards  the 
center,  he  replied,  "  that  it  made  no  difference,  since  he  calcu- 
lated to  take  the  wjiole,"  to  avoid  which  the  landlord  started 
on  a  drove  of  cattle  he  was  driving,  and  thus  hurried  him 


QUANTITY    CF    FOOD.  131 

from  his  unfinished  meal,  though  he  took  in  his  hand  a  large 
slice  of  bread  and  another  of  cheese. 

Germans,  as  a  nation,  are  great  eaters,  while  Spaniards  and 
French  live  comfortably  on  very  little,  but  the  former  are  no 
more  healthy  than  the  latter.  And  the  world  over,  great 
eaters  are  exceedingly  stupid  and  indolent.  Of  this,  the 
Indians,  Hottentots,  and  Yakuti  are  examples.  Then  why 
stupefy  ourselves  by  gluttony  ?  Or  why  follow  appetite  as 
our  guide  to  quantity  ?  Those  who  crave  and  consume  great 
quantities  of  food  do  so  from  gluttony  not  necessity.  Such, 
so  far  from  freely  indulging  their  appetites,  and  thus  enhancing 
their  voracity,  should  reduce  it  by  abstinence.  Nor  need 
they  fear  starvation.  The  Spaniards  do  not  suffer  for  want 
of  food,  but  eat  all  that  unperverted  nature  requires.  And 
all  that  any  one  requires  more  than  this  is  unnatural — the 
demands  of  a  depraved  appetite,  not  of  nature.  Let  us  seek 
and  follow  NATURE'S  standard,  not  our  own  inordinate  cravings, 
and  the  result  will  be  increased  mental  and  physical  capa- 
bility and  enjoyment. 

While,  therefore,  natural  appetite  is  nature's  infallible 
guide  to  the  right  quantity  of  food,  yet  I  warn  -every  reader 
that  his  appetite  is  perverted,  and  if  followed,  will  breed 
debility  and  suffering — it  being  with  quantity  as  already  ex- 
plained in  regard  to  kind34.  So  that  here,  too,  as  there,  we 
must  practice  temporary  self-denial  till  both  the  stomach  and 
Alimentiveness  regain  their  healthy  tone.  I  err  in  saying 
"self-denial ;"  for,  be  it  ever  remembered,  that  this  very  fast- 
ing will  enhance  even  our  PRESENT  as  well  as  future  gustatory 
pleasure.  These  unnatural  cravings  can  neither  appreciate 
nor  enjoy  the  delicious  flavor  of  food,  but,  seek  in  quantity  the 
pleasure  lost  in  a  blunted  appetite.  Let  these  fainting  hank- 
erers  omit  supper,  and  they  will  take  double  the  pleasure 
in  two  daily  meals  they  now  take  in  three.  Such,  to  be  epi- 
cures must  first  be  stoics.  Those  convinced  of  over-eating 
will  now  enquire 


132  EATING. 

70.       HOW   APPETITE    CAN    BE    RESTRAINED? 

Doubtless  most  readers  conscious  of  excess,  would  give 
almost  anything  to  know  how  they  can  manage  to  govern  this 
incessant  craving  ?  Every  little  while  they  suffer  from  excess, 
and  firmly  resolve  to  eat  less,  and  succeed  at  a  single  meal 
only  to  eat  the  more  afterwards.  Indeed,  few  things  are 
more  difficult  than  to  govern  a  morbid  appetite,  whether  for 
alcoholic  liquors,  or  unhealthy  viands,  or  excessive  quantities 
of  food.  He  that  can  do  this,  can  march  to  the  stake.  To 
rule  a  kingdom  is  play  compared  with  controlling  a  morbid 
appetite.  Yet  this  is  not  so  difficult  after  we  know  HOW. 
Many  try  hard  enough,  but  do  not  try  RIGHT.  Follow  the 
succeeding  directions  and  this  task  will  soon  become  easy. 

FIRST.  Take  upon  your  plate,  in  one  or  two  parcels,  all  the 
food,  except  perhaps  the  dessert,  you'  think  best  to  eat  at  a 
meal,  even  though  it  may  seem  to  be  a  "  cart-load,"  and  leave 
off  when  that  is  finished,  instead  of  "backing  up  your  cart" 
for  another  load.  By  this  means  alone  can  you  fully  realize 
how  much  you  do  eat.  Or  if  this  is  impracticable,  notice 
how  much  you  have  previously  taken,  so  as  to  bear  in  mind 
the  sum  total  consumed.  But  if  you  take  potatoe  after  potatoe, 
and  slice  after  slice  of  meat,  and  bread,  and  the  like,  relying 
upon  an  already  inflamed  appetite  for  your  guide  to  quantity, 
or  till  your  stomach,  stretched  by  a  thousand  surfeits,  is  pained 
by  fulness69,  be  assured  you  will  over-eat.  Weighing  a  few 
meals,  till  you  have  learned  to  estimate  correctly  by  the  eye, 
and  never  exceeding  twenty  ounces  per  day  of  solid  food — 
and  from  twelve  to  sixteen  will  be  found  ample  for  both 
the  sedentary  and  laboring — will  soon  aid  you  in  curtailing 
appetite'.  When  pressed  with  business  or  writing,  I  limit  my- 
self to  a  pound  or  less  of  bread  per  day,  exclusive  of  fruit, 
and  eat  nothing  besides. 

Especially  should  every  meal  of  every  child  be  measured 
out  to  them  on  setting  do\v>.  to  the  table,  with  the  full  under- 
standing that  they  can  have  no  more  till  the  next  meal. 
They  will  thus  grow  up  to  this  much  desired  limitation.  The 
Scotch  custom  of  placing  before  each  child  all  it  is  to  have 


FREQUENCY.  133 

at  that  meal,  every  mother  should  apply  to  her  children,  and 
all  adults  to  themselves.  Never  make  them  eat  to  save. 

SECONDLY.  Eat  it  in  SMALL  MOUTHFTJLS.  When  we  cram 
in  great  mouthfuls,  and  chew  only  till  we  can  barely  swallow, 
and  then  hurry  in  as  much  more  as  the  mouth  will  hold,  we 
eat  far  greater  "  cart-loads"  in  a  short  time  than  we  suppose. 
But  when  we  take  a  small  quantity  at  a  time,  and  chew  it 
till  it  is  fitted  for  deposite  in  the  stomach,  instead  of  a  great 
pile  of  food  seeming  little,  a  little  will  go  a  great  way  both 
in  satisfying  appetite  and  in  nourishing  the  body,  meanwhile 
strengthening  instead  of  impairing  digestion.  See  some  chil- 
dren eat.  They  take  a  small  bite,  and  laugh,  play,  and  talk, 
perhaps  even  while  chewing  it,  and  then  take  a  little  more, 
and  thus  spin  out  their  eating  a  long  time.  Do  likewise,  and 
you  will  find  it  easier  to  stop  eating  a  small  meal  than  now  a 
large  one. 

Besides,  when  you  eat  fast,  and  in  large  mouthfuls,  the 
stomach  hardly  realizes  how  much  food  it  has  taken  until  it 
is  almost  crushed  under  its  burden.  Follow  these  simple 
directions — parcel  out  your  meal  at  the  commencement,  and 
then  eat  in  small  mouthfuls  at  a  time,  and  masticate  thoroughly, 
and  the  government  of  appetite  will  be  easy.  But  to  govern 
a  craving  appetite  while  you  eat  fast  is  next  to  impossible. 

A  THIRD  means  of  reducing  the  quantity  of  food  consists  in 
EATING  SELDOM.  This  brings  up  for  canvass  another  import- 
ant dietetic  condition : 

71.      FREQUENCY. 

How  OFTEN  should  we  eat?  Nature,  not  habit,  should  deter- 
mine this  point.  Nor  can  I  resist  the  conviction  that  one  meal 
in  the  twenty-four  hours  is  amply  sufficient  for  all  the  purposes 
of  nutrition.  This  may  seem  a  fanciful  chimera,  but  nature's 
division  of  time  should  determine  the  frequency  of  eating  as 
well  as  sleeping.  This  division  into  day  and  night  plainly 
indicates  that  we  should  eat  once  in  twenty-four  hours. 
About  any  more  than  this  she  says  nothing.  Yet  if  additional 
frequency  had  been  necessary,  she  would  have  divided  time 
accordingly. 

12 


134  EATING. 

If  you  think  you  could  not  go  without  food  so  long,  remem- 
ber that  by  eating  every  two  hours  you  can  habituate  yourself 
to  being  hungry  as  often,  or  by  accustoming  yourself  to  two 
meals,  as  many  do  in  winter,  you  feel  quite  as  comfortable  on 
two  meals  as  on  three  with  luncheons.  Since  we  require 
more  food,  and  that  more  frequently  in  cold  weather  than  hi 
warm,  as  will  be  seen  under  "animal  heat,"  and  since  the 
increased  labors  of  summers  consume  far  less  extra*  food  than 
the  extra  cold  of  winter96,  therefore  as  we  can  live  comfortably 
on  two  meals  in  winter,  much  more  can  we  in  summer,*  ai,d 
without  luncheon,  of  which  presently.  It  is  HABIT,  not  na- 
ture, which  makes  us  desire  three  diurnal  meals,  and  would 
require  six  if  we  were  accustomed  to  eat  thus  often.  The 
English  must  have  a  bite  on  rising,  a  breakfast,  a  luncheon, 
a  dinner,  and  a  supper,  and  then  a  plate  of  oysters,  or  bread 
and  cheese,  with  ale,  pick  the  cold  bones  left  at  dinner,  or 
something  of  the  kind,  on  retiring — six  meals  or  luncheons 
per  day — and  think  they  cannot  live  without  them  all.  Yet 
the  ancients  ate  but  one  full  meal  per  day,  at  four  P.  M., 
except  their  breakfast — a  luncheon  in  hand  about  eleven 
A.  M.  The  Thracians  offered  public  thanksgivings  to  the 
gods  because  Cyrus  and  his  army  ate  but  one  meal  per  day. 
And  every  one  of  the  many  with  whom  the  author  has  con- 
versed who  have  exchanged  the  three-meal  system  for  the 
two,  declare  themselves  much  improved  in  mind  and  body 
thereby.  With  this  my  own  experience  fully  accords.  A 
breakfast  at  eight  or  nine,  and  a  hearty  dinner  at  three,  are  far 
better  for  me  than  a  third  meal ;  and  a  little  practice  has  fully 
satisfied  me  that  I  could  soon  omit  breakfast  and  supper 
without  inconvenient  hunger,  and  with  great  benefit.  If 
laborers  say  they  cannot  endure  work  without  their  three 
meals,  I  tell  them  in  return,  how  utterly  puerile  are  their 
labors  compared  with  the  herculean  exertions  of  the  ancien. 
soldiers,  whether  marching,  or  building,  or  besieging,  or  fight- 
ing !  And  since  they  endured  so  much  on  one  meal,  cannot 
you  so  little,  or  at  least  on  two  ?  Your  stomachs,  like  your 
muscles,  must  have  REST.  .  This,  three  meals  per  day  do  not 


FREQUENCY.  135 

f 

allow,  nor  time  to  secrev'e  new  supplies  of  gastric  juice,  also 
indispensable  to  complete  digestion. 

Still  I  would  not  recommend  a  sudden  change  from  three 
meals  and  a  lunch  to  one,  or  even  two,  but  begin  with  a  light 
supper,  then  postpone  dinner  and  omit  supper,  and  after  a 
year,  or  two,  or  three,  eat  only  a  light  breakfast,  and  ultimately, 
if  you  choose,  omit  it  also,  though  this  I  hardly  recommend 
to  any  accustomed  to  three  meals,  yet  think  this  habit  prefer- 
able if  formed  in  childhood.  The  error  lies  in  the^nursery. 
But  of  this  in  my  work  on  "  Maternity." 

"  But  why  not  less  and  oftener  ?"  it  is  enquired.  Because 
the  same  quantity  can  be  digested  with  far  more  ease  at  two, 
that  at  three  or  more  times ;  because  we  are  much  less  liable 
to  over-eat  on  the  two  than  three-meal  system  ;  and  especially 
because  the  latter  allows  that  rest  which  the  muscles  and 
nerves  of  the  stomach  require,  quite  as  much  as  those  of  the 
arms,  feet,  eyes,  or  any  other  -organ ;  and  such  rest  greatly 
enhances  its  power.  And  with  this  view  my  own  long  and 
often  varied  experience  fully  accords.  You  may  eat  as  often 
as  you  like,  but  let  me  eat  only  twice  per  day ;  and  I  wish  I 
had  the  habit  formed  of  eating  only  once. 

But  invalids,  it  is  generally  supposed,  must  eat  often.  The 
reverse.  Their  debility  or  disease  prevents  their  consuming 
much  of  the  energy  derived  from  food,  so  that  they  require 
less,  and  their  exhausted  stomachs  pre-eminently  require  rest. 
"  There  is  nothing,"  says  Dr.  Cheyne,  "  more  supremely 
lidiculous  than  to  see  tender,  hysterical,  and  vaporish  people, 
perpetually  complaining  yet  perpetually  cramming;  crying 
out  they  are  ready  to  sink  into  the  ground  and  faint  away,  yet 
gobbling  down  the  richest  and  strongest  food  and  highest  cor- 
dials." In  fact,  I  know  of  no  more  effectual  remedy,  both  for 
chronic  invalids  and  the  sick,  than  fasting.  Why  take  food 
when  they  cannot  digest  it,  especially  since  its  presence  only 
clogs  and  irritates  ?  As  gormandizing  is  one  great  breedei 
of  disease,  so  abstinence  is  one  great  remedy.  Whether  in- 
finitessimal  doses  of  haemopathy  are  potent  or  harmless,  one 
thing  is  certain,  that  the  dietetic  prescriptions  of  this  medical 
sect  arts  most  beneficial.  Nor  is  the  temperance  regimen  as- 


136  EATING. 

sociated  with  the  "  water-cure"  scarcely  less  efficacious  as  a 
restorative  agent  than  this  powerful  remedial  agent.  Abste- 
miousness and  water,  rightly  applied,  will  restore  almost  all 
to  health,  while  frequent  eating  puts  back  almost  all  conva- 
lescents, and  often  induces  a  relapse,  and  hurries  its  victim, 
already  renovated  by  sickness,  and  prepared  for  a  return  of 
health,  into  a  re-opening  grave.  Even  many  convalescents, 
whom  over-eating  does  not  kill  outright,  are  injured  by  it  for 
Mfe,  and  loaded  anew  with  disease.  Let  all  heed  these  warn- 
ings, thus  frequent  and  palpable,  and  learn  the  abstemious 
lesson  they  teach. 

73.       EATING    BETWEEN    MEALS,    LUNCHEONS,    ETC., 

Next  come  up  for  reprehension.  If  two  meals  are  suffi- 
cient for  human  sustenance,  eating  between  three  must  cer- 
tainly be  injurious.  The  stomach,  on  receiving  its  allow- 
ance, empties  into  itself  a  copious  discharge  of  that  gastric 
juice  which  dissolves  the  food,  and  does  not  secrete  another 
supply  till  all  that  meal  is  disposed  of  and  another  demanded. 
Hence,  what  we  eat  between  meal-times  must  lay  in  the 
stomach  undigested,  only  to  irritate  and  disease.  Besides,  to 
interfere  with  this  process  by  introducing  a  fresh  mass  into 
one  partly  dissolved,  distracts  and  arrests  its  healthy  action, 
and  causes  that  first  received  to  lay  until  incipient  fermenta- 
tion takes  place— of  the  evils  of  which  presently.  Not  once  a 
month  do  I  eat  between  meals  unless  just  before  or  after,  so 
as,  in  fact,  to  be  a  part  of  them,  and  always  when  I  do,  hear 
from  it  in  the  form  of  dyspeptic  pains.  Nuts,  cakes,  candies, 
apples,  oranges,  and  the  like,  should,  therefore,  be  eaten  WITH 
meals,  not  between  them  ;  and  those  who  violate  this  law 
must 'suffer  the  direful  consequences  of  disordered  digestion. 

This  principle  condemns  that  motherly,  custom  of  giving 
pieces  to  children  between  meals.  It  will  as  surely  derange 
their  stomachs,  and  thus  breed  worms,  as  it  is  practised.  I 
protest  against  it,  and  beseech  mothers  to  give  their  children 
nothing  between  their  regular  meals.  If  they  must  have 
apples,  nuts,  and  the  like,  see  that  they  eat  them  just  before 
or  right  after,  or  along  with  them;  and  if  adults  would  enjoy 


LUNCHEONS.  137 

dainties,  keep  them  ill  meal-time.  Nor  should  luncheons 
ever  be  eaten.  Do  not  disturb  the  digestive  process.  Many 
of  us,  by  thus  eating  unseasonably,  have  undoubtedly  in- 
flicted aggravated  pains  and  lingering  maladies  upon  ourselves 
which  will  burden  us  while  alive,  and  hasten  our  death. 

74.       THE    BEST   TI3IE    FOR   EATING 

Also  deserves  attention.  We  should  never  take  food  just 
after  rising,  but  wait  till  the  stomach  is  prepared  for  it  by 
exercise.  Some  urge  inability  to  exercise  till  after  breakfast, 
because  of  consequent  faintness.  This  is  the  very  reason 
why  they  should  exercise.  Its  cause  is,  that  stomachic  in- 
flammation, already  explained69,  which  can  be  cured  in  part 
by  exercise  before  breakfast,  little  and  light  at  first,  and  then 
gradually  increasing  its  duration  and  amount  as  it  can  be 
borne.  Their  difficulty  is  dyspepsia,  the  cure  of  which  re- 
mains to  be  discussed. 

Nor  should  food  be  eaten  within  at  least  three  hours  before 
retiring.  True,  sleep  sometimes  promotes  digestion,  yet  the 
latter  interferes  with  sleep,  "  nature's  great  restorer."  A  full 
stomach  is  very  apt  to  engender  bad  dreams,  and  induce  rest- 
lessness and  starting  in  sleep,  of  which  nightmare  is  only  an 
aggravated  example.  Especially  should  nuts,  raisins,  candies, 
fruit,  etc.,  be  eschewed  at  night.  Eat  little,  if  any,  supper, 
and  that  three  or  more  hours  before  retiring,  and  you  will 
sleep  the  more  sweetly,  and  feel  the  better  the  next  day,  be- 
cause of  the  far  greater  good  your  sleep  will  do  you.  I  for 
one  feel  best  when  I  do  not  eat  for  six  or  eight  hours  before 
retiring,  nor  till  I  have  been  "  up  and  doing"  at  least  two 
hours.  Yet  in  this  case  I  would  eat  a  hearty  dinner. 

But  where  three  meals  are  eaten,  seven,  twelve,  and  five 
are  undoubtedly  the  best  hours  ;  where  only  two,  from  eight 
to  nine,  and  two  to  three  are  probably  preferable.  Business 
men  who  dine  at  three,  should,  by  all  means,  forego  forenoon 
luncheons  and  late  suppers — in  fact,  all  suppers,  because  the 
former  unfit  the  stomach  for  dinner,  and  the  latter,  especially 
on  the  top  of  a  hearty  dinner,  are  doubly  injurious.  I  recom- 
mend readers  to  breakfast  about  nine,  and  dine  between  twc 
12* 


138  2.GESTION. 

and  three,  and  strenuously  object  to  disturbing  the  digestive 
process  after  the  latter  hour.  Even  if,  at  first,  you  feel  faint 
before  retiring,  sleep  will  abate  hunger,  so  that  you  can  endure 
two  hours  abstinence  before  breakfast  with  little  inconvenience. 

'   75.      THE    DIGESTIVE    PROCESS 

Is  one  of  the  most  remarkable  as  well  as  important  opera- 
tions of  the  human  economy.  How  soon  the  horse  drops  dead 
•when  his  maw,  or  second  stomach,  is  eaten  through  by  the  bott- 
worm.  How  suddenly  cold  water  on  an  over-heated  stom- 
ach suspends  life  by  palsying  this  organ  !  How  sudden  and 
fearful  the  ravages  of  the  cholera,  which  consist  solely  in 
disordered  digestion  !  How  rapidly  children,  taken  down 
with  the  bowel  complaint,  fall  away  and  die  !  Yet  nothing 
but  suspended  digestion  causes  this  leanness  and  death. 
How  effectually  impaired  digestion,  in  the  form  of  dyspepsia, 
frustrates  both  physical  and  mental  energy!  A  vigorous 
stomach  is  indispensable  to  energy  in  any  and  every  other 
portion  of  the  system.  Let  us  then  examine  this  organ. 

It  consists  of  a  sack 7S  capable  of  holding  from-  a  quart  to 
several  gallons,  according  as  it  has  been  more  or  less  distended 
by  excess  or  deficiency  of  food  and  drink.  Its  upper  side  is 
much  shorter  than  its  under,  thus  appearing  like  a  bag  held 
horizontally,  and  ruffled  on  its  upper  edge  7S.  It.  has  two  open- 
ings, the  one-  where  the  food  enters,  located  at  its  left  superior 
side,  and  called  the  cardiac  orifice 7S,  from  its  proximity  to  the 
heart,  and  the  other,  situated  at  the  right  superior  side,  named 
the  pyloric  orifice  75,  through  which  the  food,  after  having  un- 
dergone the  chymifying  process,  makes  its  egress  into  the  duo- 
denum, or  second  stomach.  The  latter  opening  is  constructed 
with  a  valve,  or  door,  so  arranged  as  to  close  upon  and  send 
back  whatever  presents  itself  for  egress  not  completely  dis- 
solved ;  and  it  departs  from  this  rule  in  extreme  cases  only, 
and  where  things  cannot  be  digested  without  remaining  so 
long  in  the  stomach  as  seriously  to  threaten  its  injury.  Hence 
the  ejection  of  food  either  way,  undigested  or  much  as  it  was 
eaten,  is  a  sure  index  of  a  deranged  stomach,  because  a  vig- 
orous one  would  first  dissolve  whatever  is  soluble. 


DIGESTION.  139 

76,      STRUCTURE   OF    THE    STOMACH    AND    INTESTINAL   CANAL. 


No.  8.     THE  STOMACH  AND  INTESTINAL  CANAL. 

C  the  cardiac  orifice  through  which  the  food  enters ;  P  the  py 
loric  orifice  through  which  the  chyme  passes  out ;  S  S  the  coronal 
artery  of  the  stomach.     Another  artery  is  seen  passing  under  the 
stomach,  and  those  lines  seen  to  pass  in  all  directions  at e  ramifica- 
tions of  blood-vessels. 


TD  TD  the  chyle  duct; 
L  lacteals ;  M  G  mesentery 
glands,  several  of  which  are 
hero  represented  ;  S  spinal 
column.  The  folding  struc- 
ture of  the  intestines  is  here 
well  represented. 


No.  9:     INTESTINES,  LACTEALS,  AND  MESENTARY  GLANDS. 
(See  page  147.) 


140  DIGESTION. 

It  is  composed  of  three  membranes — the  outer,  called  the 
peritonaeum,  or  glossy  coat,  which  lines  and  lubricates  all  the 
internal  organs,  and  allows  them  to  slide  upon  each  other  without 
friction ;  the  middle  coating  composed  of  muscles  laid  trans- 
versely, and  crossing  each  other  in  all  directions,  which  con- 
tract upon  its  contents  so  as  to  give  it  the  required  motion ; 
and  the  inner,  or  mucous  membrane,  which  is  extremely  deli, 
cate,  and  of  a  pale  cream  color  when  healthy.  And  this  struc- 
ture pervades  the  whole  intestinal  canal.  Nerves  and  blood- 
vessels  also  permeate  all  its  parts ;  the  latter  imparting  vitality, 
and  the  former  relating  it  to  the  whole  nervous  system,  by 
which,  means  the  various  states  of  the  stomach  control  both 
the  nervous  system  and  mind. 

When  a  healthy  stomach  receives  its  food,  this  mucous 
membrane,  or  some  glandular  structure  interwoven  with  it, 
empties  into  it  a  clear,  tasteless  liquid,  resembling  saliva  in 
appearance,  called  the  GASTRIC  JUICE,  previously  secreted  so 
as  to  be  in  readiness.  This  fluid  is  a  most  powerful  solvent, 
capable  of  reducing  to  a  milky,  homogeneous  mass,  called 
chyme,  all  those  heterogeneous  substances  taken  as  food.  It, 
as  it  were,  sets  free,  or  extracts,  from  food  the  carbon,  fibrine, 
casseine,  nitrogen,  hydrogen,  and  other  substances,  electricity 
also  probably  included,  which  enter  into  the  composition  of 
food,  and  are  required  to  support  life.  It  even  dissolves  food 
out  of  the  -stomach,  but  not  as  quickly  as  in.  Its  solvent 
power,  when  the  stomach  is  healthy,  is  most  astonishing. 
Not  to  dwell  on  the  wonderful  gastric  powers  of  some  ani- 
mals— that  East  Indian  bird  which  will  swallow  and  digest 
even  wood — man's  solvent  power  is  far  greater,  by  nature, 
than  any  suppose.  Some  have  swallowed  knives,  and  digested 
their  bone  or  horn  handles.  Is  it  not  surprising  that  the  stom- 
ach should  bear  up  often  a  century  under  such  continued 
abuse  as  even  the  most' temperate  daily  heap  upon  it  ?  Take 
our  own  cases.  How  long,  how  often,  and  how  outrageously, 
reader,  have  you  abused  your  own  digestion  by  eating  too 
fast,  and  too  much,  and  of  unwholesome  food,  and  yet  it  per- 
haps retains  much  of  its  pristine  vigor. 

But  such   abuse  ultimately  weakens  its  solvent  powers. 


DIGESTION.  1  11 

This  allows  food  to  lay  so  long  in  the  stomach,  that  its  heat 
induces  souring  or  fermentation,  which  aids  its  dissolution,  and 
helps  to  relieve  the  stomach  of  its  load.  But  mark  ;  this  fer- 
mentation is  nothing  more  nor  less  than  incipient  decomposi- 
tion, or,  to  call  it  by  its  true  name,  the  commencement  of  the 
ROTTING  process.  To  ferment  is  to  PUTREFY.  Nor  is  it  pos- 
sible for  food  to  sour  in  the  stomach  without  engendering  cor- 
ruption. Especially  is  this  true  of  the  fermentation  of  meat. 
All  know  how  vast  the  amount  of  putrefaction  eliminated  by 
its  decay  out  of  the  stomach.  Fermentation  engenders  the 
same  in  it.  Is  it  then  any  wonder  that  dyspepsia,  which  con- 
sists simply  in  the  rotting  of  food,  especially  meat,  in  the  hu- 
man stomach,  should  cause  its  victims  to  feel  so  wretchedly  ? 
Is  not  here  a  powerful  argument  against  meat  eating,  espe- 
cially when  the  stomach  is  not  PERFECTLY  good  ?  Think  of 
it ;  meat  actually  putrefying  in  the  center  of  the  system,  to  be 
sent  all  through  it ;  literally  frightful  to  contemplate  !  And 
yet  this  very  process  is  perpetually  going  on,  in  a  greater  or 
less  degree,  within  the  stomachs  of  all  in  the  least  afflicted  by 
dyspepsia,  and  this  class  embraces  the  mass  of  Americans,  as 
we  shall  show  when  we  come  to  treat  of  this  disease.  This 
chymical  fact,  that  the  souring  process  is  incipient  rotting, 
together  with  the  fact  that  the  food  of  the  great  mass  of  our 
nation  does  thus  ferment,  developes  the  prolific  cause  of  most 
of  those  chronic,  malignant,  and  all  other  diseases  which 
bring  suffering  and  premature  death  on  the  mass  of  mankind. 
Men  cannot,  therefore,  guard  too  carefully  against  all  injury  of 
this  important  organ.  Its  healthy  and  vigorous  condition  is 
indispensable  to  life  and  happiness.  Its  abuse  is  suffering  and 
death.  As  starvation,  by  withholding  nutrition,  soon  destroys 
life,  so  imperfect  digestion  proportionably  impairs  it.  Dys- 
pepsia is  partial  starvation  on  the  one  hand,  by  withholding  the 
materials  of  life,  and  death  on  the  other,  by  engendering  cor- 
ruption. Hence,  whatever  dyspeptics  do  or  leave  undone,  they 
should  first  restore  the  flagging  energies  of  their  stomachs. 
The  scholar  who  is  impairing  digestion  by  study,  instead  of 
disciplining  his  mind,  is  undisciplining  it  in  the  most  effec- 
tual manner  possible,  and  by  that  very  study  which  otherwise 


142  THE   MOTION   OP   THE    STOMACH. 

would  strengthen  it,  because  stomachic  diseases  effectually 
prostrate  the  brain.  Such  should  stop  studying  till  they  have 
effected  a  cure.  And  all,  whoever  they  are,  whose  stomachs 
are  strong,  should  make  it  their  paramount  business  to  keep 
them  so,  and  if  weak  or  disordered,  to  strengthen  and  heal 
them,  and  should  give  up  or  abstain  from  whatever  impairs 
them.  But  more  on  this  point  hereafter. 

This  gastric  juice  acts  mainly  upon  the  OUTSIDE  of  the  food 
eaten,  thus  evolving  nourishment  GRADUALLY — a  provision  of 
great  practical  utility.  Otherwise  we  should  be  obliged  to 
eat  perpetually,  which  would  be  inconvenient,  if  not  impossible 

77.       THE    MOTION    OF    THE    STOMACH 

Greatly  facilitates  digestion.  That  muscular  coating  of  the 
stomach,  already  described,  by  contracting  from  all  points 
upon  the  food,  as  it  were  CHURNS  it  till  it  is  dissolved.  As 
the  muscles  of  the  gizzard  of  fowls  contract  upon  their 
food  so  powerfully  as  to  grind  it  by  friction  against  the  gravel 
stones  mixed  up  with  it,*  so  the  muscles  of  the  human  stom- 
ach keep  perpetually  squeezing  and  whirling  the  food  over 
and  over,  always  one  way.  This  motion  all  must  have  ob- 
served within  themselves.  In  cases  of  heart-burn,  which  is 
caused  by  the  souring  process 76,  this  rolling  of  the  food  is 
particularly  observable  in  conjunction  with  the  rising  and 
burning  caused  by  the  inflammation  of  the  stomach. 

This  motion  is  involuntary,  else  we  should  be  obliged  to 
WILL  it  continually,  which  would  be  exceedingly  inconvenient, 
as  it  must  be  perpetual,  so  that  we  could  do  little  else. 
Breathing  also  greatly  facilitates  it.  Every  inspiration  hauls 
down  the  stomach  to  make  room  for  the  ingress  of  air,  and 
every'expiration  redoubles  this  motion  by  allowing  it  to  return 
to  its  place.  And  as  breathing  is  perpetual,  so  is  this  stomachic 
motion.  This  physiological  principle  condemns  in  unqualified 
terms  all  lashing  down  of  the  stomach,  and  girting  between 
it  and  the  lungs,  which  prevents  this  motion.  Unless  it  had 

*  Those  who  will  bolt  their  food,  like  fowls,  without  chewing,  should, 
Jke  them,  eat  gravel  stones  to  do  the  crushing  teeth  were  created  to 
accomplish. 


EXERCISE    AFTER    MEALS.  143 

been  very  important,  nature  would  never  have  devised  so 
effectual  a  means  of  securing  it ;  and  those  who  arrest  it  by 
tight  lacing,  do  so  at  their  PERIL. 

Nature  still  further  facilitates  this  motion  by  those  ABDOMI 
KAL  MUSCLES  which  pass  up  and  down  across  the  stomach  and 
bowels,  so  that  we  cannot  well  move  the  body  backwards,  for- 
wards, sideways,  any  way,  without  using  these  muscles,  and 
thus  as  it  were  kneading  the  stomach.  This  brings  up  for 
discussion 

78.       EXERCISE    AFTER   MEALS,    AND    NOONINGS. 

Such  exercise  is  generally  condemned,  and  a  nooning 
recommended  instead  ;  because  two  dogs  fed  alike,  the  one 
put  upon  the  chase,  the  other  allowed  to  rest,  on  being  killed 
two  hours  and  a  half  after  feeding,  in  the  former  digestion 
was  scarcely  commenced,  while  in  the  other  it  was  nearly 
completed.  Violent  exercise  is  undoubtedly  injurious,  because 
it  robs  the  stomach  of  energy  to  supply  the  extra  exactions  of 
the  muscles ;  yet  this  does  not  condemn  moderate  exercise. 
Nor  are  we  told  whether  the  still  dog  laid  down  all  the  time, 
or  ran  around  leisurely  here  and  there,  but  only  that  he  was 
not  on  the  chase ;  so  that  these  cases  fail  of  proving  that  we 
should  "  after  dinner  sit  an  hour."  And  since  such  sitting 
actually  deprives  the  stomach  of  a  part  of  that  motion  so  in- 
dispensable to  rapid  and  complete  digestion,  it  is  therefore 
positively  INJURIOUS.  Moderate  exercise  PROMOTES,  instead 
of  retarding  digestion,  though  fatiguing  labor  is  of  course 
injurious. 

''But,"  it  is  objected,  "nature  seeks  rest  after  meals,  and 
what  she,  unperverted,  inclines  us  to  do,  is  beneficial."  But 
I  doubt  whether  apathy  after  meals  is  natural.  I  even  claim 
the  converse.  Trut;,  when  we  have  overtasked  the  stomach, 
this  organ  withdraws  energy  from  the  muscles,  brain,  and 
wherever  else  it  can  obtain  it,  to  enable  it  to  discharge  its 
burden,  just  as  over-tasked  muscles  rob  both  stomach  and 
brain,  and  an  over-tasked  brain  robs  all  the  rest  of  the  system. 
Such  robbery  of  organs  not  oppressed  by  those  that  are,  is 
a  physiological  law  of  great  practical  utility.  Nor  is  there  a 


144  DIGESTION. 

more  certain  sign  of  having  over-eaten,  than  subsequent 
lethargy  of  mind,  or  indolence  of  body.  The  stomatic  nerve 
robs  the  brain,  or  muscles,  when  thus  overloaded.  One  func- 
tion was  never  made  to  interfere  with  or  obstruct  another,  else 
nature  would  be  at  war  with  herself,  which,  let  alone,  she  13 
not.  On  the  other  hand,  all  promote  all.  So  far  from  its 
being  a  law  of  things  that  the  stomach  should  retard  the  ac- 
tion of  brain  or  muscle,  it  was  created  to  facilitate  both ;  so 
that  RIGHT  eating  will  actually  exhilarate  instead  of  prostrat- 
ing all  the  other  functions.  I  never  take  noonings.  Children 
never  do,  but  are  generally  more  lively  and  playful  after 
meals  than  before,  but  never  more  stupid ;  and  he  who  can- 
not take  hold  of  labor  with  increased  zest  and  strength,  or 
study  with  greater  success,  after  having  eaten  than  before, 
has  eaten  too  much.  Eat  exactly  right^— enough  but  not  too 
much,  of  the  right  kind,  and  masticate  well — and  you  can  labor 
with  augmented  ease,  and  apply  your  mind  with  increased 
clearness  and  power  after  eating,  and  feel  like  doing  instead 
of  loitering.  Food,  like  sleep,  naturally  refreshes  and  invig- 
orates; and  unless  it  does  so,  is  excessive  in  quantity  or  inju- 
rious in  kind.  This  physiological  law  furnishes  a  sure  crite- 
rion of  the  quantity  of  food  required  for  the  most  perfect 
sustenance  of  body  and  mind,  Yet  when  we  have  over-eaten, 
noonings  and  rest  after  meals  are  probably  beneficial. 


LOCATION    OF    L1VJ5II,    GALL,    PANCREAS,  ETC.  145 

79.       LOCATION   AND  FOIIM  OF  THE  LIVER,  GALL,   PANCREAS   AND  KIDNEYS. 


No.  10.     THE  LIVER,  GALL,  PANC.REAS,  AND  KIDNEYS. 

L  the  liver  turned  up  to  show  its  under  side  ;  G  gall-bladder ;  P 
the  pancreas  ;  K  the  kidneys ;  S  the  spleen ;  A  the  descending 
aorta ;  V  V  the  ascending  vena  cava  which  carries  venous  blood  to 
the  liver ;  R  the  rectum  ;  B  the  bladder. 

-. 


146  THE   LIVER   AND  PANCREAS. 


SECTION  IV. 

THE  DUODENUM,  LIVER,  PANCREAS,  INTESTINES  AND  MESSE.NTAR1 
GLANDS,  AND  THEIR  FUNCTIONS. 

80.      CHYLE. 

The  manufacture  of  good  chyme  by  the  stomach,  so  fai 
from  completing  the  digestive  process,  only  begins  it.  It 
remains  to  be  assorted — the  nutritious  from  the  innutritious 
portions ;  for  there  is  a  refuse  residuum  in  food,  as  of  ashes  in 
combustion.  By  what  means,  then,  is  this  separation  effected  ? 

After  the  chyme  has  been  admitted  through  the  pyloric  ori- 
fice into  the  duodenum,  or  second  stomach  — a  long  narrow 
sack,  composed,  like  the  stomach  proper,  of  the  peritoneal, 
muscular,  and  mucous  coatings — it  there  receives  two  secre- 
tions, one,  called  gall,  from  the  liver,79  and  the  other  from  the 
pancreas,'9  called  the  pancreatic  juice.  The  gall  is  a  liquid 
of  a  greenish  color,  and  exceedingly  bitter,  secreted  from  the 
dark  and  venous  blood  while  returning  back  to  the  heart, 
about  eight  pounds  flowing  through  the  liver  per  minute. 
This  bile  is  composed  mainly  of  carbon,  and  this  is  one  of  the 
means  by  which  the  system  relieves  itself  of  surplus  carbon. 
Hence  those  whose  livers  are  weak  should  eat  substances  less 
highly  carbonized,  so  that  they  may  have  less  carbon  to  se- 
crete. They  should  also  eat  less  food  for  the  same  reason. 
Animal  food  taxes  the  liver  somewhat  less  than  vegetable. 

Soda  is  also  secreted  from  the  venous  blood,  and  contained 
in  the  bile,  and,  being  required  in  the  vital  process,  is  taken 
up  by  the  liver,  and  returned  into  the  circulation,  to  take  part 
in  respiration — a  most  ingenious  contrivance  for  supplying  the 
system  with  the  soda  it  requires.  The  gall  thus  secreted  by 
the  liver,  is  emptied  from  all  parts  of  this  glandular  and  po- 
rous organ  into  little  ducts,  and  these  continue  to  empty  them- 
selves into  larger  and  still  larger  ones,  till  they  finally  deposite 
the  gall  in  a  little  sack  called  the  gall-bladder,75  from  which  it 
is  carried  by  another  duct  into  the  duodenum. 


TKE  LACTEAL  VESSELS.  147 

With  the  glandular  structure  and  general  mechanism  of 
the  liver  most  readers  are  doubtless  familiar.75  If  not,  they 
can  obtain  the  required  knowledge  by  observing  and  dissecting 
that  of  animals. 

The  pancreas,  or  sweet  bread,  another  long  and  tapering  gland 
situated  right  under  the  stomach,75  secretes  another  fluid  some- 
what resembling  the  saliva,  which  is  conveyed  by  a  trough- 
like  duct  which  traverses  it,75  into  which  a  multitude  of  smaller 
ducts  empty  this  fluid,  into  the  duodenum.  Of  the  precise 
nature  of  this  juice  little  is  known,  only  that  it  is  indispensa- 
ble to  chylification,  and  this  to  nutrition. 

These  two  fluids,  commingling  with  the  chyme,  separate  its 
nutritious  from  its  innutritious  portions,  somewhat  as  runriet 
separates  the  whey  and  curd  of  milk  from  each  other.  The 
former  is  called  chyle — a  half-liquid  grayish  subetance,  close- 
ly resembling  milk  in  appearance,  laden  with  fibrine,  carbon, 
nitrogerr,  oil,  and  other  substances  required  to  support  life. 
In  fact,  its  composition  is  almost  identical  with  that  of  blood, 
and  requires  only  contact  with  air  to  impart  that  red  color  and 
oxygen  which  constitute  it  blood  proper.  The  importance  of 
these  two  glandular  secretions,  shows  how  absolutely  indis- 
pensable health  of  function  in  each  is  to  human  life,  and  the 
consequent  evils  of  their  abuse,  and  importance  of  their  re- 
storation—of which  hereafter. 

The  chyle  thus  separated  in  the  duodenum  from  the  refuse 
portions  of  food,  the  two  are  urged  along  together  into  and 
through  the  intestines75  by  that  muscular  or.  middle  coating 
which  surrounds  the  entire  alimentary  canal,  arranged  circu- 
larly and  transversely,  so  that  its  action  crowds  its  contents 
along  irresistibly.  This  canal  is  some  six  or  -eight  times  as 
long  as  its  possessor  is  tall,  and  into  it  open  a  vast  multitude 
of  little  mouths  or  suckers,  called 

81.    THE    LACTEAL    VESSELS.75 

These  chyle-drinkers,  passing  through  the  three  outer  coat- 
ings,  open  upon  the  inner  surface  of  the  mucous  membrane, 
these  being  in  a  great  number  of  folds,  by  which  the  surface, 
and  of  course  power  of  function,  of  this  canal  is  greatly  iru 


148 


STRUCTURE    OF    THE    INTESTINES 


No.  11.     THE  STRUCTURE  OF  THE  INTESTINES. 


A  A  A  liver ;  B  gall-bladder ;  M  stomach ;  L  cardiac  orifice  ; 
V  V  pancreas;  R  S  S  S  S  sma  i  intestines ;  T  termination  of  the 
small  intestines,  and  commencement  of  the  large  one  called  the 
colon ;  T  U  the  ascending  colon ;  U  U  transverse  colon,  the  seat 
of  colicky  pains  ;  U  W  descending  colon ;  X  Y  rectum. 


THE    LACTEALS.  149 

creased.  These  lacteals  suck  up  the  chyle  as  it  is  .hus  urged 
along  over  them,  and,  passing  backward  behind  the  intestines, 
and  then  through  innumerable  little  glands  called  the  messenta- 
ries  ™,  empty  themselves  into  larger,  and  these  into  still  larger 
ducts,  till  they  form  one  duct  which  passes  up  along  inside  the 
back-bone  to  near  the  neck,  and  empties  its  contents  into  the 
right  subclavian  vein,  nearly  under  the  right  clavicle,  or 
collar-bone,  while  the  residuum,  or  waste  portions  of  the  food, 
are  expelled  along  through  the  small  intestines75  into  the  as- 
cending colon,  which  passes  up  on  the  right  side  of  the  abdo- 
men, then  into  the  transverse  colon,  which  runs  along  under 
the  stomach,  and  thence  into  the  descending  colon,  which 
passes  down  the  left  side  of  the  abdomen  into  the  rectum75, 
from  which  it  is  expelled  in  the  form  of  excrement.  Blood- 
vessels also  open  into  the  alimentary  canal,  and  when  inflamed, 
as  in  dysentery,  cholera,  etc.,  discharge  blood  ;  and  hence  the 
sudden  weakening,  and  often  death,  they  occasion. 

Behold  this  most  ingenious  system  of  instrumentalities  em- 
ployed to  manufacture  food  into  blood,  and  load  the  blood  with 
the  elements  requisite  for  sustaining  life  !  Yet  even  now  the 
digestive  process  is  by  no  means  complete — only,  as  it  were, 
begun.  After  the  materials  of  life  have  thus  been  furnished, 
they  must  be  WORKED  UP,  else  the  human  structure  will  be 
like  the  unused  timber  of  a  house  or  ship.  How  are  these 
materials  manufactured  into  life  and  happiness  ? 


150  IMPORTANCE    OF   CIRCULATION. 

CHAPTER  III. 

CIRCULATION,    RESPIRATION,    PERSPIRATION,    AND    SLEEP. 


SECTION.  1. 

THE    HEART ITS    STRUCTURE    AND    OFFICE. 

82.       IMPORTANCE    OF    CIRCULATION. 

THE  chyle,  thus  richly  freighted  with  these  materials  of 
life,  is  emptied  into  the  blood81.  With  the  looks  and  general 
nature  of  this  porter  of  life,  all  are  doubtless  familiar.  It  is 
composed  of  two  principal  parts — serum,  which  rises  to  the 
top  of  fresh  drawn  blood  when  allowed  to  coagulate  undis- 
turbed, which  also  contains  albumen,  and  globules,  which  set- 
tle to  the  bottom  and  coagulate.  It  also  contains  fibrine 5l, 
which  re-supply  that  waste  of  muscle  and  nerve  consequent 
on  their  action28.  The  vivifying  office  of  the  blood  and  its 
essentiality  to  life,  are  too  well  known  to  require  description. 
Drained  of  this  messenger  of  life,  how  soon  muscle,  nerve, 
organ,  faint  and  die  ? 

•  But  this  blood  must  be  CIRCULATED  throughout  the  system 
in  order  to  impart  its  vitality.  Every  organ,  nerve,  muscle, 
shred,  and  tissue  of  the  entire  physiology  must  be  supplied 
with  it  perpetually  or  die.  To  secure  this  circulation,  and 
also  the  requisite  minuteness,  nature  has  devised  a  circulatory 
apparatus  of  extraordinary  power  and  efficiency,  consisting  of 
heart,  arteries,  capillaries,  and  veins. 

83.       THE    HEART ITS    STRUCTURE    AND    OFFICE. 

•  This  organ  is  located  at  the  top,  and  nearly  in  the  middle 
of  the  chest,  or  between  the  shoulders,  its  apex  pointing 
downwards  and  towards  the  left  side,  which,  in  common  with 
the  greater  power  of  its  left  and  lower  portion,  and  greater 
proximity  to  the  surface  of  the  body,  makes  its  beating  more 
apparent  further  downwards  and  outwards  than  it  really  lays. 


CIRCULATION.  151 

It  consists,  in  common  with  the  stomach,  of  three  coatings— 
a  peritoneal,  a  muscular,  and  a  villous,  serous,  or  mucous. 
Indeed,  this  treble  structure  appertains  to  arteries  and  veins 
as  well  as  to  stomach  and  intestines,  and  each  coating  serves 
a  kindred  purpose76.  In  the  heart,  however,  this  muscular 
coating  is  very  large,  so  as  to  enable  it  to  put  forth  the  extra- 
ordinary contractile  force  required. 

It  is  divided  into  four  chambers — two  above,  called  auricles, 
the  contraction  of  which  draws  in  the  blood ;  and  two  called 
ventricles,  which  force  it  out.  Nature  has  also  divided  it  up 
and  down,  into  right  and  left  lobes,  the  right  upper  chamber, 
or  right  auricle,  pumping  in  the  blood  by  suction  from  the 
veins,  and  the  right  lower  chamber,  or  right  ventricle,  forcing 
it  out  into  the  pulmonary  or  lung  arteries  and  capillary  struc- 
ture, while  the  left  upper  chamber,  called  the  left  auricle, 
withdraws,  on  the  principle  of  the  suction  pump,  the  blood 
from  the  lungs,  and  empties  it  into  the  left  lower  chamber, 
called  the  left  ventricle,  the  contraction  of  which  upon  it  forces 
it  into  the  arteries  and  throughout  the  system. 

This  ever-acting  organ  contracts,  in  healthy  adults,  about 
seventy  times  per  minute,  or  a  little  more  than  once  per  sec- 
ond, though  slower  or  faster  according  to  the  general  and  tem- 
porary activity  of  the  subject,  often  doubling  this  number,  and 
forces  out  at  each  pulsation  into  both  lungs  and  arteries  some- 
where from  two  to  three  ounces  of  blood,  according  to  its  size 
and  power ;  so  that  as  the  blood  weighs  from  twenty-five  to 
thirty  pounds,  more  or  less,  in  different  subjects,  all  the  blood 
of  the  body  passes  through  this  organ  and  throughout  .the 
system  about  twenty-nine  timss  per  hour,  or  once  in  about 
two  minutes.  The  heart,  therefore,  sends  throughout  the 
system  nearly  two  hundred  ounces  every  minute,  or  some 
seven  hundred  pints  per  hour,  and  above  EIGHT  TUNS  every 
twenty-four  hours.  Think  what  tremendous  power  is  required 
to  withdraw  from  the  veins,  pump  into  the  lungs,  withdraw 
from  the  pulmonary  veins,  and  then  send  round  the  system — 
thus  handling  these  eight  tuns  four  times  over,  equal  to  im- 
parting motion  to  above  THIRTY  TUNS  di  urn  ally — these  eight 
tuns  of  blood !  And  to  impart  sc  KUCH  force  as  to  send  it 


152 


CIRCULATION. 


84.       THE    CIRCULATORY    SYSTKM. 


No.  12.    THE  HEART. 


EXPLANATION. 


a,  trie  left  ventricle  ;  &,  the  right  ventricle  ;  c  ef,  the  aorta, 
the  great  artery  that  goes  off  from  the  left  ventricle ;  g  k  i, 
the  arteries  that  are  sent  from  the  arch  of  the  aorta ;  A:,  the 
pulmonary  artery,  that  goes  from  the  right  ventricle  to  the 
lungs ;  1 1,  branches  of  the  pulmonary  artery,  going  to  the  two 
sides  of  the  lungs  ;  m  m,  the  pulmonary  veins,  which  bring  the 
blood  back  from  the  lungs  to  the  left  side  of  the  heart ;  n,  the 
right  auricle ;  o,  the  ascending  vena  cava ;  q,  the  descending  : 
these  two  meet,  and  by  their  union  form  the  right  auricle ;  p^ 
the  veins  from  the  liver,  spleen,  and  bowels  ;  5,  the  left  coro- 
nary artery,  one  of  the  arteries  which  nourish  the  heart. 


CIRCULATION.  153 

throbbing  and  rushing  throughout  the  entire  body,  a.id  into  all 
those  minute  capillary  vessels  through  which  it  passes !  How 
little  do  we  realize  either  the  amount  of  power  this  organ  puts 
forth  or  the  good  it  effects  ! 

To  inspect  still  more  closely  this  mighty  pumping  machine 
and  its  mode  of  action ;  the  two  upper  chambers,  or  auri- 
cles, contract  upon  the  blood  they  contain  at  the  same  time, 
thereby  bracing  and  balancing  each  other.  Their  contraction 
produces  a  vacuum  into  which  blood  is  again  propelled  by  the 
contractile  action  of  the  veins,  and  the  pressure  of  the  atmo- 
sphere and  muscles  upon  them.  The  two  ventricles,  or  lower 
chambers,  also  contract  together,  thus  also  bracing  each  other, 
at  the  same  time  forcing  the  blood,  the  right  into  the  lungs,  (I) 
and  the  left  into  the  arteries  (g,  h,i.)  By  this  means  time  for 
rest  is  allowed  the  heart,  the  two  auricles  taking  a  short  nap— 
and  a  very  short  one  it  is  too — while  the  ventricles  contract, 
and  the  latter  going  to  sleep,  and  waking  up  again,  while  the 
auricles  contract — thus  all  its  parts  getting  tired,  and  taking 
rest  as  quickly  and  as  often  as  the  heart  beats.  The  heart 
must  have  rest  as  much  as  the  muscles  and  nerves.  Yet  if, 
like  the  muscles,  it  required  six  or  seven  hours  of  SUCCESSIVE 
sleep,  death  would  inevitably  supervene.  Behold  the  sim- 
plicity yet  efficiency  of  this  arrangement  for  securing  time  to 
the  heart  to  rest  without  suspending  life ! 

We  have  said  that  the  muscles,  or  walls  of  the  heart,  are 
thick,  large,  and  strong.  Some  of  its  chambers,  the  ventri- 
cles, are  much  more  so  than  the  auricles,  because  they  have 
more  to  do.  The  auricles  have  only  to  pump  the  blood  in  by 
suction  from  the  veins  and  lungs,  pr  rather  to  empty  it  out  of 
themselves  right  into  the  ventricles,  so  that  it  may  run  in  till 
it  again  fills  them  up  and  causes  spontaneous  contraction, 
while  the  ventricles  have  to  pump  it  out,  the  right  throughout 
the  lungs,  and  the  left  throughout  the  body.  The  office  of  the 
ventricles  being  so  much  more  laborious  than  that  of  the  auri- 
cles, they  are  much  the  larger,  and  the  left  ventricle  is  by  far 
the  largest  and  strongest  of  all,  because  it  has  to  force  out 
the  blood  with  sufficient  impetus  to  drive  it  not  only  into  all 
the  extremities  of  the  system  but  also  throughout  the  incon- 


154  THE    HEART. 

ceivably  minute  blood-vessels  of  those  extremities.  The 
reader  may  comprehend  and  fix  this  circulatory  process 
effectually  in  his  mind  by  remembering — 

1.  That  the  right  side  of  the  heart,  auricle  and  ventricle, 
have  to  do  wholly  with  the  dark  or  venous  blood,  and  the  left 
with  arterial  or  red  blood. 

2.  That  the   two  auricles,  or  upper  chambers,  draw  the 
blood  into  the  heart  and  empty  it  into  the  two  ventricles,  or 
lower  chambers  which  drive  it — the  right  into  the  lungs,  and 
the  left  throughout  the  system.     Or  thus : — 

3.  That  the  right  upper  chamber  withdraws  by  suction  the 
blood   from   the  veins,  and  empties   it  into  the   right  lower 
chamber,  which,  contracting  upon  it,  forces  it  into  the  lungs,  (I) 
while  the  left  upper  chamber,  or  auricle,  withdraws  it  from  the 
lungs  and  empties  it  into  the  left  lower  chamber,  or  ventricle, 
which  propels  it  throughout  the  system. 

I  say  "draws  in."  You  ask  now,  as  the  blood  is  not  a 
rope  so  that  the  further  end  cannot  be  pulled  in  by  drawing 
in  the  other.  How  withdraws  ?  Just  as  water  is  sucked  up 
out  of  the  well  into  the  pump,  and  up  that  pump  to  that  valve 
which  carries  it  still  higher.  The  heart  is  in  every  respect  a 
self-acting  forcing  pump.  As  the  working  of  the  pump  cre- 
ates a  vacuum  into  which  the  pressure  of  the  atmosphere  on 
the  top  of  the  well,  which  is  sufficient  to  lift  an  unobstructed 
column  thirty-two  feet,  forces  the  water  till  it  is  again  full, 
so  the  contraction  of  the  right  auricle  of  the  heart  upon  the 
blood  it  contains,  forces  out  that  blood  into  the  right  ventricle, 
and  thus  creates  a  vacuum  into  which  the  pressure  of  the  at- 
mosphere  upon  the  surface  of  the  body,  and  of  course  upon 
the  veins,  together  with  the  contractile  power  of  the  veins, 
and  the 'pressure  of  the  muscles  upon  them,  propel  the  blood 
along  into  these  auricles.  And  just  as  the  water  in  the  pump 
above  the  valve  is  forced  up  and  out,  so  the  right  ventricle 
pumps  the  blood  into  the  lungs,  to  be  withdrawn  again  from 
them  by  that  same  principle  of  suction  just  described.  But 
for  this  external  pressure  of  the  atmosphere  upon  the  veins, 
they  would  burst,  strong  as  they  are,  and  but  for  this  internal 
pressure,  the  external  would  be  sufficient  to  press  the  walls 


RESPIRATION.  155 

of  the  veins  so  closely  together  as  effectually  to  shut  them  up. 
If  asked,  why  the  contraction  of  the  heart  does  not  propel  the 
blood  both  ways — BACKWARDS  as  well  as  forwa  :*ds — the  answer 
is,  that  it  is  constructed  with  valves,  which  close  the  instant 
the  blood  begins  to  go  backwards,  and  thus  stop  its  return. 
In  and  by  its  very  attempt  to  return,  it  shuts  the  door  in  its 
own  face.  It  must  .go  FORWARDS,  or  stand  still.  Nature  al- 
lows no  back-water  in  any  part  of  the  circulating  system. 

We  may  next  be  expected  to  follow  the  blood  through  the 
arterial  and  capillary  system,  in  the  latter  of  which  it  expends 
its  energies;  but,  preferring  to  follow  the  order  of  nature — 
to  show  whence  the  blood  OBTAINS  its  freight — before  we 
show  where  and  how  it  deposits  it,  our  subject  brings  us  next 
to  consider — 


SECTION  II. 

THE    LUNGS THEIR    STRUCTURE    AND    FUNCTIONS. 

85.       RESPIRATION    AND    ITS    IMPORTANCE. 

THE  fibrine,  carbon,  oxygen,  nitrogen,  iron,  and  other  sub- 
stances which  the  blood  derives  from  food,  constitutes  hardly 
half  its  freight.  True,  life  cannot  proceed  without  them ; 
nor  can  it  with  them  alone.  We  must  eat ;  we  must  also 
BREATHE.  And  the  elements  furnished  to  the  blood  by  breath- 
ing are  even  more,  and  more  perpetually,  indispensable  to  life 
than  those  derived  from  digestion,  because  we  can  live  longer 
without  the  latter  than  the  former.  Starvation  is  terrible,  and 
soon  fatal,  but  suffocation  is  worse,  and  dispatches  its  victim  a 
hundred-fold  more  quickly  and  certainly.  Indeed,  mankind 
can  live  but  a  few  minutes — from  five  to  eight — without 
breath  ;  and  those  die  the  soonest  when  deprived  of  it  who  are 
the  most  active.  Thus,  the  slow  moulded  Malay  can  stay 
under  water  from  seven  to  eight  minutes,  and  then  rise, 
whereas  the  more  active  Caucasian  suffocates  if  he  remains 
under  five  or  six  minutes — the  difference  being  one  quarter 
in  favor  of  the  sluggish,  and  for  this  reason — the  more  ac- 


150  RE-SUPPLY    OF    BREATH. 

tive  the  subject  the  more  rapidly  he  consumes  the  energies 
derived  from  breath  as  well  as  from  food,  and  therefore  the 
more  frequent  and  cepious  must  be  this  re-supply.  The  faster 
we  live,  the  more  and  oftener  we  must  breathe.  As  the 
snake,  frog,  alligator,  and  other  cold-blooded,  sluggish  animals, 
can  live  a  long  time  without  breath,  especially  while  torpid, 
so  the  more  stupid  the  human  animal  .the  less  breath  he  re- 
quires. Hence,  ability  to  hold  the  breath  a  great  length  of 
time  is  a  poor  recommendation. 

Breathing  thins  the  blood  so  that  it  circulates,  and  the  rea- 
son why  the  absence  of  breath  suffocates,  is  that  it  allows  the 
blood  to  become  too  thick  to  circulate.  Let  the  reader  notice 
his*  own  pulsations — their  rapidity  and  power — when  he 
breathes  fully,  compared  with  them  when  he  holds  his  breath, 
and  he  will  find  them  weaker  and  less  frequent  the  longer  he 
holds  it,  till  it  ceases  to  flow,  soon  after  which  life  takes  its 
exit. 

Those  whose  circulation  is  not  good — whose  hands  and 
feet  are  often  cold,  .veins  blue,  and  health  none  the  best,  will 
observe  that  inspiration  gives  a  sudden  start  to  pulsation,  both 
hurrying  it  and  increasing  its  power,  but  while  they  are 
expiring  their  breath,  the  heart  beats  both  more  slowly  and 
feebly. 

But  why  dwell  upon  the  importance  of  respiration  ?  All 
know  how  indispensable  a  constant  supply  of  breath  is  to  life. 
Nor  can  words  compare  with  the  experience  of  every  readei 
in  enforcing  its  importance. 

But  WHY  important  ?  What  precise  END  in  the  vital  process 
does  breath  subserve  ?  What  does  it  do  for  the  blood  and  the 
animal  ?  It  thins  the  blood,  but  HOW,  and  WHAT  FOR  1 

86.    REQUISITION    AND    SUPPLY    OF    OXYGE.«. 

The  vital  process  requires  large  and  perpetually  renewed 
quantities  of  OXYGEN.  Without  it,  all  the  materials  of  life 
furnished  by  digestion  would  be  of  no  avail.  They  are  the 
timber  and  the  tools  of  the  vital  process,  while  oxygen  is  the 
master  workman — the  grand  motive  power  of  the  animal 
economy,  indeed,  of  universal  nature.  The  vital  process 


STRUCTURE    OF    THE    LUNGS. 


157 


•RAPE  AND  STRUCTURE  OF  THE  LUNGS. 


No.  13. 


EXPLANATION. 

a,  the  trachea,  or  windpipe. 
6,  its  branch  to  the  right. and  left  lung. 
c  c  c,  the  three  lobes  which  compose  each  lung. 
e  e  e,  the  air  cells  of  the  lungs  dissected, 
rf,  the  pulmonary  arteries,  or  entrance  and  egress  of  the 
blood  from  and  to  the  heart. 


158  CIRCULATION. 

#*• 

closely  resembles  combustion,  of  which  oxygen  is  one  great 
agent  and  instigator.  As  fire  goes  down  with  the  scarcity  of 
oxygen,  and  goes  out  with  and  in  consequence  of  its  disap- 
pearance, so  the  fire  of  life  wanes  in  proportion  as  the  supply 
of  oxygen  is  diminished,  and  death  supervenes  almost  imme- 
diately upon,  and  in  consequence  of  its  disappearance.  It  is 
this  imperious  demand  of  the  system  for  oxygen  which  ren- 
ders the  requisition  for  breath  so  absolute,  and  its  suspension 
so  soon  fatal.  A  demand  for  breath  and  oxygen  thus  impe- 
rious was  not  made  in  vain,  but  their  office  is  as  important  as 
their  demand  is  absolute,  else  it  would  be  capricious.  God 
never  trifles. 

Oxygen  being  thus  essential  to  life,  from  what  source  is  it 
obtained  ?  From  breath.  Air  always  contains  it — indeed,  is 
composed  of  twenty-one  parts  of  oxygen  and  seventy-eight 
nitrogen,  the  other  hundreth  being  carbonic  acid  gas,  and 
going  to  support  vegetation.  Air,  wherever  found  and  under 
all  circumstances,  is  composed  of  these  substances  always  in 
the  same  proportion.  Any  variation  destroys  it,  or  makes  it 
into  something  else. 

Adapted  to  this  demand  for  oxygen,  air  abounds  wherever 
man  can  go,  unless  artificially  excluded.  Being  highly 
flexible,  it  can  penetrate  the  least  possible  crevice,  and  even 
what  we  call  solid  substances.  It  not  only  surrounds  the 
earth,  extending  some  forty-two  miles — probably  many  more — 
above  it  in  all  directions,  but  its  great  heaviness  presses  with 
immense  weight  upon  every  part  of  the  surface  of  the  body. 
Its  quantity  is,  therefore,  as  illimitable  as  its  demand  is  impe. 
rious.  But,  this  oxygen  being  in  the  air,  how  is  it  introduced 
into  tfre  system  ? 

87.       THE    MEANS    EMPLOYEE    TO    INFLATE    THE    LUNGS 

Are  the  production  of  a  vacuum  by  means  of  the  contrac- 
tion of  the  diaphram,  a  thin,  broad,  and  long  muscle,  located 
between  the  heart  and  lungs  above,  and  the  liver,  stomach, 
pancreas,  and  abdominal  organs  below,  attached  across  the 
back  posteriorly,  and  to  the  abdominal  muscles  anteriorly, 
(as  seen  in  d  d  of  the  engraving  on  the  foregoing  page,) 


STRUCTURE  OF  THE  LUNGS.  159 

the  contraction  of  which  hauls  down  ail  the  Drgans  below  it, 
thus  producing  a  partial  vacuum  into  which  the  great  weight 
of  the  atmosphere,  everywhere  pressing  into  every  accessible 
nook  and  corner,  crowds  the  air  nearest  the  mouth  and  nose 
and  thus  inflates  the  lungs.  By  an  arrangement  of  muscles 
stationed  between  the  ribs,  called  intercostal,  the  ribs  are 
hauled  up,  and  thus  thrown  outwardly,  hence  that  heaving 
and  swelling  motion  of  the  chest  seen  in  breathing,  so  as  to 
increase  this  cavity  and  allow  a  still  greater  influx  of  air. 
Air  is  neither  stringy  nor  ropy,  and  cannot,  therefore,  be 
pulled  or  sucked  into  the  lungs,  for  we  have  no  means  of  get- 
ting hold  of  it  to  draw  it  in.  All  we  care  or  need  to  do  is  to 
make  that  opening  for  it  caused  by  hauling  down  the  abdomi- 
nal organs  and  heaving  out  the  ribs.  The  air  itself  does  the 
rest  by  running  into  the  lungs  spontaneously ;  or  rather,  the 
pressure  of  the  atmosphere  is  so  great  as  to  crowd  that  portion  of 
air  next  the  mouth  and  nose  into  this  partial  vacuum  created, by 
the  diaphram  and  intercostal  muscles,  the  relaxing  of  which, 
and  consequent  letting  up  of  the  stomach  and  bowels,  and 
letting  down  of  the  ribs,  fills  it  up  and  thus  expels  the  air, 
notwithstanding  the  resistance  of  that  immense  pressure  of  the 
atmosphere  which  forced  it  in.  Yet  the  lungs  do  not  empty 
out  all  the  air,  else  they  would  collapse,  as  they  sometimes  do 
in  crying  children,  so  as  to  prevent  inflation,  the  remedy  of 
which  is,  to  hold  them  up  by  the  heels,  head  downwards. 

88.       STRUCTURE    OF    THE    LUNGS. 

The  lungs  are  those  two  spongy  lobes  in  the  upper  part  of 
the  chest  which  surround  the  heart,  and  together  wi*h  the 
latter,  fill  up  most  of  the  cavity  formed  by  the  ribs.  They 
consist  of  a  very  thin  and  light  membrane,  permeated  by  two 
sets  of  tubes,  one  set  formed  by  the  branching  and  re-branch- 
ing  almost  to  infinity,  of  the  trachea,  or  wind-pipe,  till  their 
porous  structure  becomes  too  small  to  be  traced  with  the  eye, 
even  when  aided  by  the  most  powerful  magnifying-glasses 
yet  invented.  The  other  set  of  tubes  is  formed  by  the 
branching  and  re-branching  to  the  same  degree  of  capillary 
minuteness  of  the  pulmonary  arteries  and  veins — those  ducts 


160 


CIRCULATION. 


No.  14.     THE  LUNGS  AND  STOMACI. 


The  letters  R  L  and  L  L  mark  the  right  and  left  lungs,  wjlh 
the  heart  H  lying  between  them,  but  chiefly  on  the  left  side.  V 
is  not  a  very  accurate  representation  of  the  largo  blood-vessels 
going  to  the  head,  neck,  and  superior  extremities.  Livr.  is  the 
liver,  lying  in  the  abdomen,  or  belly,  and  separated  from  the  chest 
by  the  arched  fleshy  partition  D  D,  called  the  diaphragm,  or  mid- 
riff. The  stomach  appears  on  the  other  side,  marked  Stm,.,  but 
both  it  and  the  liver  are  removed  a  little  from  their  natural  situa- 
tion. G  is  the  gall-bladder.  Ill  are  the  various  parts  of  the  in- 
testinal canal,  through  which  the  food  is  passed  on  its  way  from  the 
stomach,  by  means  of  what  is  called  the  PERISTALTIC  or  VERMICULAR 
motion  of  the  bowels,  on§  circle  of  fibres  narrowing  after  another, 
so  as  to  propel  its  contents  slowly  but  steadily,  and  resembling,  in 
some  degree,  the  condition  of  a  common  worm. 


CIRCULATION.  161 

which  convey  the  blood  from  the  heart  to  the  lungs  and  back 
again.  Only  a  very  thin,  though  tough  membrane  separates 
between  these  capillary  air-cells  and  blood-cells,  yet  so  minute 
are  its  ramifications,  that  an  ordinary  sized  pair  of  lungs  con- 
tain, or  has  folded  up  in  them,  a  surface  of  about  twenty  thou- 
sand square  inches !  Nature  is  a  great  economist  in  everything, 
space  included,  and  by  this  folding  up  of  the  membranes  of 
the  lungs  it  is,  that  she  contrives  to  present  so  large  an  amount 
<*f  surface  in  so  small  a  compass — a  contrivance  akin  to  that 
by  v,hich  she  has  folded  up  the  intestinal  canal 79,  and  still  fur- 
Viier  folded  its  mucous  surface  so  that  a  great  amount  of  surface 
may  be  contained  within  a  small  compass.  But  for  this  folding 
arrangement,  the  size  of  the  lungs  must  have  been  immense ; 
just  as,  but  for  the  similar  folding  structure  of  the  intestines, 
mankind  must  have  been  six  or  eight  times  taller  for  the  same 
weight  than  now. 

The  end  attained  by  this  plating  structure  is,  that  a  large 
surface  may  be  provided  1br  the  juxta-position  of  the  air  in 
in  the  air-cells,  side  by  side  with  the  blood  in  the  blood-cells. 
The  right  lung  is  somewhat  larger  than  the  left,  and  the  two 
envelope  the  heart  so  that  this  juxta-position  may  facilitate 
their  combined  functions. 

We  thus  see  in  what  manner  the  air,  and  of  course  the 
oxygen  of  the  air,  is  brought  alongside  of  the  blood,  only  a 
thin  membrane  separating  them.  Yet  this  membrane,  while 
it  prevents  the  blood  from  escaping  except  when  ruptured,  does 
not  intercept  the  passage  of  oxygen,  a  gas  more  subtle  than 
the  air  itself,  so  that  it  can  pass  in  through  this  membrane, 
while  blood  cannot  pass  out  through  it,  nor  air  pass  in  through 
it  to  the  body. 

89.       INTRODUCTION    OF    OXYGEN    INTO    THE    CIRCULATION. 

All  this  done,  by  what  means  is  the  oxygen  induced,  or 
coaxed  through  this  membrane  so  as  to  unite  with  and  vital- 
ize the  blood  1  But  for  some  means  of  effecting  this  object, 
blood  and  air  might  lay  side  by  side  on  a  surface  of  twenty 
millions  of  inches  instead  of  twenty  thousand,  and  forever, 
instead  of  a  few  seconds,  without  the  required  passage  of  the 
14* 


162  THE    BLOOD. 

oxygen — this  indispensable  ingredient  of  life — from  the  air 
w.iich  it  loves,  and  from  which  it  is  loth  to  part — even  cannot 
part  without  destroying  the  nature  of  that  air — into  the  blood. 
How  then,  is  the  blood  oxygenated  ?  As  follows. 

The  globules  of  the  blood  contain  iron  so  plentifully,  that 
many  of  the  French  nobility  are  now  wearing  rings  made 
from  the  iron  extracted  from  the  blood  of  their  friends,  for  the 
same  keepsake  purpose  for  which  we  wear  rings  inclosing  a 
lock  of  our  friend's  hair.  Now,  though  the  oxygen  of  the  air 
loves  its  mate,  nitrogen,  right  well,  yet  it  loves  iron  belter,  so 
that  when  the  oxygen  contained  in  the  air  in  the  lungs  is 
brought  alongside  of  the  iron  contained  in  the  blood  of  the 
lungs,  the  two,  loving  each  other  devotedly,  rush  into  each 
others  arms ;  but  the  blood  being  unable  to  pass  through  this 
membrane  which  separates  them,  while  the  oxygen  is  able  to 
do  so,  the  oxygen  leaves  its  mated  nitrogen,  and  elopes  with 
the  iron  into  the  blood,  changes  that  blood  from  its  dark 
venous,  to  a  bright  red  color,  thins  it,  and  inspirits  it  with  life  and 
action,  so  that  it  is  now  all  prancing  with  vitality,  eager  to  be 
sent  throughout  the  system  on  its  mission  of  life.  We  say  the 
oxygen  in  the  air  rushes  into  the  arms  of  the  iron  in  the  blood  : 
and  as  the  powerful  Achilles  having  seized  the  beautiful  Helen, 
carried  her  off  from  Troy,  so  the  iron  of  the  blood,  having  loaded 
itself  with  all  the  oxygen  it  can  carry  off,  employs  the  heart 
as  its  coach-and-four,  to  transport  its  new  bride  through  the 
arteries  into  the  capillary  system,  there  to  deposite  this  instru- 
mentality of  heat. 

That  oxygen  is  thus  transferred  from  the  air  in  the 
lungs  into  the  blood,  is  rendered  certain* by  the  fact  that  when 
air  is  inspired,  it  contains  21  per  cent,  of  oxygen,  while  ex- 
pired" air  contains  only  12  per  cent.;  it  having  lost  nine 
per  cent,  of  its  oxygen,  but  none  of  its  nitrogen.  Not  till 
thus  supplied  with  oxygen,  is  the  blood  COMPLETELY  freighted 
with  the  materials  of  life.  Though  it  had  previously  derived 
from  food  fibrine,  bone,  hydrogen,  nitrogen,  carbon,  etc.51, 
yet  they  were  of  no  avail  until  it  could  add  to  its  cargo  this 
grand  moving  principle  of  the  animal  economy  85.  That  oxy- 
gen thus  obtained,  goes  frothing,  anc  rushing,  and  bounding 


CIRCULATION.  103 

on  its  life-imparting  mission.  What  now  takes  place  ? 
How  are  these  materials  deposited  ?  And  what  end  do  they, 
especially  oxygen,  subserve  in  the  animal  economy  ?  The 
produ^fion  of 

90.      ANIMAL    HEAT. 

To  effectually  and  thoroughly  HEAT  UP  the  body  and  all  its 
parts,  is  one  of  the  first  and  most  essential  objects  to  be  pro- 
vided for.  It  so  is,  that  a  high  temperature  is  indispensable 
to  the  vital  process.  Life,  except  in  some  of  the  lower,  and 
cold-blooded  species,  cannot  proceed  except  at  a  temperature 
far  above  that  of  surrounding  objects.  Though  a  snake  may 
be  frozen,  so  as  to  snap  when  bent  like  a  pipe-stem  and  still  live, 
yet  man  soon  dies  unless  all  parts  of  him  are  kept  heated  up  to 
about  98°  Fahrenheit — a  temperature  rarely  reached  by  the  at- 
mosphere in  the  hottest  climates  in  the  hottest  days  in  summer. 
And  this  temperature  of  the  healthy  human  body  is  always 
about  the  same  in  summer  and  in  winter ;  under  the  tropical 
sun  of  the  torrid  zone,  and  among  "  Greenland's  icy  mount- 
ains" ;  though  in  children  it  is  a  little  higher,  about  102°  to 
103°,  and  in  the  aged,  a  little  lower  than  98°  5  yet  never 
varying,  whoever  or  wherever  the  subjects,  over  five  or  six 
degrees  above  98°,  or  two  or  three  below  it,  without  arresting 
life. 

The  far  greater  heat  of  the  body  than  of  surrounding  ob- 
jects, is  a  matter  of  perpetual  observation  by  us,  the  coldness 
of  stones,  iron,  ice,  etc.,  furnishing  samples.  Even  in  sum- 
mer this  difference  is  great,  as  known  by  laying  the  hand  on 
a  corpse  after  it  has  become  cold,  that  is,  has  sunk  to  the  tern, 
perature  of  surrounding  air  and  objects. 

Of  course  the  body,  thus  heated  up  so  much  above  sur- 
rounding  bodies,  is  constantly  GIVING  OFF  caloric,  in  harmony 
with  the  universal  tendency  of  heat  to  seek  an  equilibrium, 
just  as  a  hot  brick  or  iron  between  two  cold  ones  naturally 
gives  off  its  heat  to  the  others,  till  all  become  equal  in  tern 
perature.  The  amount  of  heat  given  off  by  the  human  sub 
ject  every  hour  and  minute  is,  therefore,  very  great,  as  exp* 
ri*mce  proves  it  to  be. 


164  RESPIRATION. 

But  the  re-supply  must  be  equally  great,  else  a  permanent 
cooling  would  take  place,  and  of  course  death  would  super- 
vene. And  this  re-supply  must  be  furnished  to  all  parts  of 
the  body.  Nor  merely  to  the  outside,  but  internally  as  well 
as  externally.  Where  does  this  re-supply  take  place  ?  In 
the 

91.       CAPILLARY    SYSTEM    OF    THE    BLOOD-VESSELS. 

Though  the  blood  undoubtedly  gives  off  some  of  its  life 
materials  in  the  arteries,  thus  promoting  its  circulation,  yet  it 
expends  most  of  its  renewing  energy  in  the  capillary  network 
of  the  blood-vessels.  That  capillary  or  hair-fine  structure 
which  appertains  to  the  lungs,  has  already  been  noted88.  I. 
appertains  equally  to  the  blood-vessels.  The  arteries  which 
come  off  from  the  heart  are  large,  but  branch  off,  again  and 
again,  till  they  become  too  small  to  be  followed  with  the  naked 
eye.  A  powerful  microscope  enables  us  to  follow  them  into 
ramifications  still  more  minute.  But  all  the  optical  aid  yet 
devised,  cannot  trace  them  out  to  their  almost  infinitely  minute 
ramifications — so  minute  and  so  perfectly  ramified,  that  the 
point  of  the  finest  needle  cannot  be  inserted,  however  care- 
fully, into  the  flesh  without  puncturing  some  of  them,  besides 
all  its  displaces.  In  this  capillary  structure  it  is  that  the 
blood  yields  its  vitality  to  the  system.  Yields  WHAT  ?  HO\\ 
yields  ?  Its  yield  of  those  materials  which  form  bone,  mus- 
cle, nerve,  organ,  etc.,  is  not  now  up  for  discussion.  Bui 
the  means  by  which  nature  re-supplies  the  required  HEAT,  and 
sustains  the  required  temperature  of  the  system  being  upon 
the  tapis,  how  is  it  effected  ?  By  the  mutual 

92.       COMBUSTION 

Of  the  oxygen  in  the  blood  derived  from  the  breath,  with 
the  carbon  in  the  blood  derived  from  food.  Nowhere  in  na- 
ture is  heat  produced  except  by  some  form  of  combustion ; 
nor  need  we  regard  animal  heat  as  an  exception.  And  the 
more  so,  since  chymistry  assures  us  that  these  two  gases,  car- 
bon and  oxygen,  have  a  strong  affinity  for  each  other-^the 
affinity  of  oxygen  for  carbon  being  even  greater  than  of  oxy 


ANIMAL   HEAT.  165 

gen  for  iron — so  that  when  forced  into  close  contact  with 
each  other,  in  this  capillary  system  of  the  blood-vessels,  they 
BURN  EACH  OTHER  UP  by  creating  spontaneous  combustion,  the 
result  of  course  being  heat,  so  that  this  system  is  heated  up 
much  as  we  heat  a  room.  Wood — all  that  can  be  burnt 
— contains  a  large  proportion  of  carbon,  and  hence  its  forma- 
don  of  charcoal,  which  is  almost  all  carbon.  Add  a  little  fire 
to  start  with,  and  then  blow  a  current  of  air  upon  the  fire, 
and  the  oxygen  of  the  air  combining  with  the  carbon  of  the 
wood  produces  combustion  and  evolves  heat.  But  the  carbou 
in  the  blood  being  unencumbered,  free,  and  very  abundant, 
and  thus  of  the  oxygen,  there  is  no  need  of  fire  to  start 
with.  They  burn  without  it.  They  burn  each  other  up 
SPONTANEOUSLY.  "It  whissles  ITSELF."26  Thus  is  engen- 
dered that  immense  amount  of  animal  heat  within  the  system 
which  re-supplies  that  given  off  by  the  cooling  process  just 
explained,  and  the  body,  together  with  all  its  parts,  internal 
and  external,  kept  at  that  elevated  temperature  necessary  foi 
the  maintenance  of  lifer — 

What  next  ?  As  the  combustion  of  wood  forms  smoke  and 
ashes,  so  that  of  these  two  gases  might  be  expected  to  deposite 
a  like  substance.  And  so  far  we  find  it  does.  And  the  ashes, 
or  rather  coals,  of  this  internal  combustion,  chymically  ana- 
lyzed, are  almost  identical  in  their  chymical  compounds  with 
charcoal,  the  residuum  of  burnt  wood,  both  being  composed 
mainly  of 

93.       CARBONIC    ACID — ITS    FORMATION    AN1>    EXIT. 

The  blood,  immediately  on  this  combustion  of  its  oxygen, 
which  gives  it  its  bright  red  color,  assumes  a  dark,  livid  hue, 
resembling  in  kind  the  color  of  charcoal,  though  not  as  dark, 
because  containing  less  carbon.  Combustion  can  never  take, 
place,  out  of  the  system  or  in,  without  creating  this  acid  ; 
and  that  process  of  combustion  just  explained,  by  which  the 
system  is  heated,  forms  some  ten  or  twelve  ounces  of  carbonic 
acid  per  day.  This  substance  is  hostile  to  life,  and  exceed- 
ingly poisonous,  as  seen  when  inhaled  in  a  tight  room  in 
in  which  charcoal  is  consuming.  Its  superabundance  is  fatal 


166  RESPIRATION. 

to  life.  Hence,  unless  some  means  were  devised  for  trans- 
porting  it  from  all  parts  of  the  system  where  this  combustion 
creates  it,  those  parts  must  die.  How  is  the  system  cleared 
of  this  foe  ? 

By  the  iron  in  the  blood.  That  iron  first  made  love,  in  the 
lungs,  to  the  oxygen,  also  in  the  lungs,  and  wooed  her  to  leave 
her  husband,  the  nitrogen  of  the  air,  and  run  away  with  him, 
which  she,  faithless  one,  gladly  seconded89.  But  no  sooner 
has  she  been  brought  in  close  proximity,  in  the  capillary 
blood-vessels,  with  the  carbon  also  in  the  blood,  than  she  finds 
another  paramour  in  carbon,  which  she  loves  still  better. 
Carbon  reciprocates  this  love  ;  when,  jilting  her  iron  para- 
mour, she  rushes  into  the  arms  of  this  charcoal  paramour  so 
ardently,  that  they  consume  each  other,  and  die  of  excess  of 
love,  leaving  only  their  burnt  carcasses  in  the  form  of  carbonic 
acid. 

The  iron  of  the  blood  thus  left  desolate — good  enough  for 
him — he  runs  away  with  oxygen,  the  wife  of  the  nitrogen 
of  the  air,  and  carbon  served  him  just  right  to  run  away 
with  his  stolen  wife — by  way  of  making  the  best  of  his  de- 
sertion, proffers  his  hand  to  this  carbonic  acid,  is  accepted, 
concludes  the  union,  and,  being  a  great  traveller,  take  his  new 
bride  along  back  with  him  by  slow  and  leisurely  movements 
to  the  lungs.  This  union,  not  being  extra  cordial,  this  car- 
bonic acid  finds  in  the  nitrogen  of  the  air  in  the  lungs  a  much 
more  agreeable  companion  than  in  the  iron,  and,  quitting  the 
iron,  rushes  through  this  gauze  membrane  of  the  lungs83, 
combines  with  this  nitrogen,  and  is  brought  out  of  its  pent-up 
Enclosure  into  the  wide  world,  again  to  enter  into  the  formation 
of  vegetables  and  food. 

!N"or  is  the  iron  sorry  on  account  of  this  desertion,  because 
ho  has  found  a  new  supply  of  oxygen  which  he  likes  far 
better  than  carbonic  acid.  Or  thus.  The  nitrogen  in  the 
air,  and  the  iron  in  the  blood  mutually  agree  to  SWAP  WIVES, 
each  liking  the  other's  wife  better  than  nis  own,  and  as  these 
wives  both  love  each  other's  husbands  better  than  their  own, 
they  "jump  at"  the  proposed  exchange.  This  series  of  faith- 
less desertions  on  the  one  hand,  and  of  runaway-matches  on 


REGULATION    OF    HEAT.  167 

the  other,  accomplishes  that  grand  system  of  heating  up  the 
system  so  comfortable  in  itself  and  so  indispensable  to  life — a 
means  as  ingenious  as  the  end  attained  is  indispensable.  By 
these  means,  the  system  guards  itself  against  the  otherwise 
fatal  consequences  of  those  sudden  and  extreme  changes  of 
the  atmosphere  from  heat  to  cold — is  prevented  from  freezing 
on  the  one  hand,  and  from  burning  on  the  other,  and  always 
kept  at  the  required  temperature. 

This  shows  us  what  the  primary  office  of  respiration  is—- 
the generation  of  ANIMAL  HEAT.  It  also  shows  that  one  of 
the  principal  offices  of  digestion,  is  the  subserviency  of  this 
same  end — heat  manufacturing. 

Philosophical  reader,  you  who  love  to  trace  out  the  relations 
of  cause  and  effect,  say  whether  these  combinations, 'evolu- 
tions, and  re- combinations  are  not  beautiful  in  the  highest  pos- 
sible degree.  And  do  they  not  go  far  towards  explaining  the 
INSTRUMENTALITIES  by  which  life  takes  place  ?  This  wonder- 
ful process,  thus-fkr  considerecl  an  unfathomable  mystery,  the 
very  attempt  to  solve  which  has  been  considered  blasphemy, 
bids  fair  to  be  brought  within  the  range  of  scientific  investi- 
gation. That  great  philosopher  Liebig  has  put  us  upon  the 
track,  and  thus  opened  a  new  and  most  delightful  field  of  phi- 
losophical research.* 

94.       THE    AMOUNT    OF    HEAT 

Thus  generated,  is  given  by  Liebig  as  follows : — 

"  According  to  the  experiments  of  Despretz,  1  oz.  of  carbon 
evolves,  during  its  combustion,  as  much  heat  as  would  raise  the 
temperature  of  105  oz.  of  water  at  32°  to  167°,  that  is,  by  135  de- 
grees; in  all,  therefore,  105  times  135°=14207  degrees  of  heat. 
Consequently,  the  13-9  oz.  of  carbon  which  are  daily  converted 
into  carbonic  acid  in  the  body  of  an  adult,  evolve  13-9X14207°= 
197477-3  degrees  of  heat.  This  amount  of  heat  is  sufficient  tc 
raise  the  temperature  of  1  oz.  of  water  by  that  number  of  degrees 
or  from  32°  to  197509-3°;  or  to  cause  136-8  Ibs.  of  water  at  32°  to 
boil ;  or  to  heat  370  Ibs.  of  water  to  98-3°  (the  temperature  of  the 
human  body ;)  or  to  convert  into  vapor  24  Ibs.  of  water  at  98-3°. 

*  See  this  whole  process  incontestibly  proved  and  fully  illustrated,  it 
his  Animal  Chemistry. 


169  RESPIRATION. 

"  If  we  now  assume  that  the  quantity  of  water  vaporized  througfe 
the  skin  and  lungs  in  24  hours  amounts  to  48  oz.  (3  Ibs.,)  then 
there  will  remain,  after  deducting  the  necessary  amount  of  heat, 
146380-4  degrees  of  heat,  which  are  dissipated  by  radiation  by 
heating  the  expired  air,  and  in  the  excrementitious  matters. 

"  In  this  calculation,  no  account  has  been  taken  of  the  heat  evolved 
by  the  hydrogen  of  the  food,  during  its  conversion  into  water  by 
oxydation  within  the  body.  But  if  we  consider  that  the  specific 
heat  of  the  bones,  of  fat,  and  of  the  organs  generally,  is  far  less 
than  that  of  water,  and  that  consequently  they  require,  in  order  to 
be  heated  to  98-3°,  much  less  heat  than  an  equal  weight  of  water, 
no  doubt  can  be  entertained,  that  when  all  the  concomitant  circum- 
stances are  included  in  the  calculation,  the  heat  evolved  in  the  pro- 
cess of  combustion,  to  which  the  food  is  subjected  in  the  body,  is 
amply  sufficient  to  explain  the  constant  temperature  of  the  body, 
as  well  as  the  evaporation  from  the  skin  and  lungs." 

This  combustion  of  carbon  and  oxygen  is  not,  however, 
the  only  source  of  animal  heat.  Food  contains  hydrogen 
which  is  also  received  into  the  blood.  This  hydrogen  has 
also  a  strong  affinity  for  oxygen,  and  combining  with  it,  forms 
water.  The  author  has  seen — many  readers  have,  doubtless, 
witnessed — the  formation  of  water  by  the  burning  together,  in 
a  certain  fixed  proportion,  of  these  two  gases.  A  kindred 
junction  takes  place  in  all  parts  of  the  system,  and  this  pro- 
cess both  enhances  the  amount  of  animal  heat,  and  creates  the 
materials  for  perspiration,  of  which  soon.  This  brings  up  for 
consideration 

95.   THE  DUE  REGULATION  OF  ANIMAL  HEAT. 

As  the  temperature  of  the  atmosphere  is  exceedingly  change- 
able, sometimes  105°  Fahrenheit,  and  again  40°  below  0  ;  and, 
as  the  colder  it  is,  the  more  rapidly  this  heat  passes  off  from 
the  body,  some  means  must  be  contrived  for  manufacturing 
the  more  heat  the  colder  it  is ;  and  the  less  the  warmer,  so 
as  to  keep  the  body  just  warm  enough  and  none  too  warm. 
This  is  effected  by  a  self-acting  instrumentality  as  simple  aa 
it  is  efficient,  as  follows : — The  colder  it  is,  the  more  dense 
the  atmosphere  ;  that  is,  the  greater  the  quantity  of  both  oxy- 
gen and  nitrogen  it  contains  in  any  given  bulk.  Hence,  sup- 
posing a  male  subject  inhales  at  each  respiration,  about  three 
vints  of  air,  as  is  generally  estimated,  he  of  course  inhales 


ANIMAL    FOOD    IN    WINTER.  169 

a  much  greater  amount  of  oxygen  in  cold  weather  than  in 
warm,  and  the  more  the  colder — just  when  he  needs  the  more 
to  keep  him  warm,  but  the  less  in  summer  when  he  gives  off 
less  heat.  So  that  in  and  by  the  very  changes  of  the  atmo- 
sphere from  warm  to  cold,  is  provision  made  for  increasing  the 
combustion  of  oxygen  and  the  generation  of  heat  within  the 
system.  The  perfectly  healthy  subject,  therefore,  needs  much 
less  artificial  or  external  fire  in  winter  than  is  generally  sup- 
posed, because  nature  has  provided  an  increased  supply  of 
fuel  in  proportion  to  the  increased  demand.  But  we  shall 
recur  to  this  subject  again  when  we  come  to  treat  of  clothing. 

96.       SUMMER   AND    WINTER    FOOD. 

This  principle  of  animal  heat  also  shows  why  we  require 
more  food,  and  that  more  highly  carbonized,  in  winter  than  in 
summer.  As  a  given  amount  of  oxygen,  say  the  1400  cubic 
inches  per  hour,  ^estimated  as  consumed  by  a  healthy  adult — 
though  this  amount  varies  more  than  half  in  different  subjects, 
accordingly  as  their  lungs  are  larger  or  smaller,  active  or 
sluggish,  so  that  all  such  estimates  are  of  little  worth — can 
burn  up  only  its  equivalent,  that  is,  a  fixed  proportion  of  car- 
bon,  and  as  this  supply  of  oxygen  is  much  greater  the  colder 
the  weather,  of  course  the  corresponding  re-supply  of  carbon 
to  be  derived  from  food  must  be  proportionally  increased. 
And  so  it  is.  Appetite  is  almost  always  greater  in  cold 
weather,  than  in  warm.  And  also  appetite  for  more 
highly  carbonized  kinds  of  food.  Thus  the  fat  of  meat 
which  consists  of  79  per  cent.,  or  nearly  four-fifths  carbon, 
relishes  much  better  in  winter  than  in  summer.  So  do  but- 
ter, honey,  various  oils,  nuts,  and  the  like,  Hence  the  Esqui- 
maux can  drink  down  gallons  of  train-oil,  and  eat  from  ten  to 
fifty  pounds  of  meat  per  day,  or  fourteen  pounds  of  candles 
at  a  meal,  without  injury 6S ;  indeed,  cannot  live  without  an  im- 
mense consumption  of  carbon.  The  great  condensation  •  of 
the  air  consequent  on  extreme  cold,  allows  him  to  inhale  pro- 
portionate quantities  of  oxygen,  to  burn  up  which,  he  must 
have  this  great  supply  of  carbon.  We  should,  therefore,  eat 
more  in  cold  weather  than  in  warm,  and  food  richer  in  carbon. 
15 


170  RESPIRATION. 

This  brings  up  our  unfinished  argument  about 

97.       MEAT   IN   WINTER. 

The  advocates  of  a  flesh  diet  claim  that  meat  is  indispensable, 
at  least  in  winter,  to  supply  this  increased  demand  for  carbon. 
The  premises  are  granted  that  we  need  more  carbon,  and  of 
course  food  more  highly  charged  with  carbon,  in  winter  than 
in  summer.  Yet  their  argument  is  completely  overthrown  Vy 
the  fact  that  vegetable  food  contains,  in  the  aggregate,  as 
much  carbon  as  animal.  Thus  roasted  flesh  contains  only  52 
per  cent,  of  carbon,  while  eggs  contain  53,  and  bees- wax  81. 
This  shows  why  some  relish  bees-wax,  namely,  for  its  car- 
bon. The  albumen  of  wheat  contains  55  per  cent,  and  of 
almonds  57  of  carbon.  Starch  contains  44  per  cent.,  and 
the  amount  of  carbon  contained  in  four  pounds  of  starch 
equals  that  contained  in  thirteen  pounds  of  meat.  Indian  corn 
contains  a  great  amount  of  carbon,  so  does  molasses.  In  fact, 
abstract  the  water  from  molasses,  and  the  remainder  is  car- 
bon ;  so  that  molasses  and  Indian  meal  furnish  an  excellent 
winter  diet.  So  do  bread  and  molasses.  All  vegetable  oils 
are  composed  of  about  four-fifths  of  carbon,  and  as  drop  after 
drop  of  this  oil  can  be  pressed  out  of  a  walnut,  or  butternut, 
of  course  these  nuts  furnish  a  far  greater  proportion  of  carbon 
than  lean  meat.  Why  not,  then,  seek  in  nuts  and  vegetable 
oils  the  carbon,  to  obtain  which  you  say  we  must  eat  meat? 
That  is,  why  not  eat  nuts  in  place  of  meat  ?  Chesnuts  should 
be  boiled,  and  other  nuts  well  cured,  yet  they  were  undoubtedly 
created  to  subserv3  the  purposes  of  food,  and  should  form  a 
part  of  our  regular  winter  meals.  Nor  are  nuts  inferior  to 
butter  as  a  relish  with  bread.  Sugar,  and  sweets  generally, 
contain  from  40  to  45  per  cent,  of  carbon,  according  to  how 
dry  or  wet  they  are,  the  balance  being  water.  Hence,  also,  as 
their  water  is  easily  taken  up  by  the  stomach,  they  may  justly 
be  considered  as  nearly  all  carbon.  Hence,  as  fat  is  nearly 
all  carbon,  all  the  slaves,  animals,  and  even  dogs  on  the 
sugar  plantations,  become  fat  while  making  sugar.  That  is, 
almost  the  entire  solid  matter  of  sweets,  when  their  water  is 
dried  out,  is  carbon.  Nearly  the  whole  of  honey,  after  its 


MEAT    IN    WINTER.  17$ 

water  has  been  abstracted,  is  carbon.  Olives,  and  olive-oil 
also  contain  it,  especially  the  latter,  in  far  greater  proportion 
than  meat.  We  do  not,  therefore,  need  to  go  to  the  animal 
kingdom  for  carbon,  when  we  can  obtain  it,  in  forms  much 
more  concentrated,  from  the  vegetable.  True,  we  can  obtain 
it  from  meat,  especially  fat  meat,  yet  this  very  fat  is  a  state  of 
disease,  caused  by  a  superabundance  of  carbon ;  whereas, 
health  requires  fixed  proportions  of  oxygen  to  burn  it  up.  To 
fatten  well,  animals  must  be  lazy ;  and  does  not  this  exces- 
sive stuffing  on  the  one  hand,  and  deficient  exercise  on  the 
other,  engender  disease  ?  Yet  in  vegetables  we  obtain  all  the 
carbon  we  require  without  any  of  the  evils  of  meat-eating 
37  to  49^  Then  why  seek  that  carbon  in  diseased  flesh — flesh 
cannot  become  fat  but  by  becoming  diseased — which  we  can 
obtain  from  vegetable  diet  in  greater  abundance,  and  in  a 
healthy  state  ? 

The  sufficiency  of  vegetables  for_win4er-feod  is  still  farther 
established  by  the  fact  that  horses,  cattle,  and  even  reindeer — 
all  graminivora — are  kept  abundantly  warm  by  their  natural 
diet,  though  they  inhabit  regions  quite  as  cold  as  any  of  the 
carnivora.  Indeed  the  latter  are  more  abundant,  relatively, 
in  the  torrid  zone — a  fact  which  tears  this  winter  meat-eating 
argument  in  tatters.  If  meat  is  so  conducive  to  animal  heat 
and  life,  why  are  lions,  tigers,  etc.,  confined  to  warm  climates  ? 
As  oats  keep  the  horse  abundantly  warm,  why  not  oatmeal 
keep  man  warm  enough  in  winter  ?  Ask  the  Highland  Scotch 
from  time  immemorial,  if  their  oat-meal  cakes  and  gruel 
have  not  kept  them  warm  enough  to  camp  out  even  in  winter, 
with  snow  for  their  pillow  and  blanket.  Thus  is  this  meat- 
eating  argument  completely  routed  in  every  aspect. 

But  the  great  trouble  of  civilized  life,  is,  not  to  get  carbon 
enough,  but  to  get  LITTLE  enough.  This  is  especially  true  of 
the  sedentary.  They  breathe  but  little,  because  they  exer- 
cise little,  and  because  they  live  mostly  in  heated  rooms,  where 
the  air  is  both  rarefied  and  vitiated.  Hence  they  take  in  but 
little  oxygen,  and  therefore  require  but  little  carbon  to  burn 
it  up.  Yet  such  eat,  and  keep  eating,  as  heartily  as  out-door 
laborers,  and  often  more  so ;  thus  taking  in  great  quantities  of 


172  RESPIRATION. 

carbon  while  they  consume  but  little.  Hence  their  dyspeptic 
and  other  difficulties.  No ;  few,  if  any,  require  more  carbon 
than  they  now  obtain,  even  in  winter ;  whereas  ninety-nine  in 
every  hundred  would  be  benefitted  by  lessening  the  quantity 
one  half,  especially  in  summer.  Its  superabundance  is  the 
great  cause  of  disease,  of  which  fasting,  less  highly  carbon- 
ized food  and  more  oxygen,  are  the  remedies.  All  who  feel 
better  when  cold  weather  sets  in,  superabound  in  carbon.,  and 
by  taking  less  of  it  in  food  would  be  cured  by  the  cold. 
But  that  very  cold  which  brings  their  relief  sharpens  up  ap- 
petite, and  they  take  still  more  carbon  ;  thus  keeping  up  both 
its  -superabundance  and  their  disease  ;  whereas,  if  they  would 
not  increase  such  quantity,  meanwhile  breathing  freely  so  as 
to  burn  up  its  surplus,  they  would  obtain  permanent  health. 
And  such,  in  fact  all,  to  be  healthy,  MUST  diminish  the  quan- 
tity of  carbon  taken  in  food  in  spring,  compared  with  winter. 
The  great  cause  of  the  prevalence  of  diseases  in  the  spring,  is 
to  be  found  in  our  eating  as  much  carbon  then  as  in  winter  ; 
whereas  we  burn  out,  and  therefore  require,  far  less.  And  one 
of  the  great  instrumentalities  of  health  is  to  be  found  in  grad- 
uating the  amount  of  carbon  received,  from  food  in  proportion 
to  that  of  oxygen  inspired  from  breath.  But  as  the  principle 
here  involved  that  we  should  take  less  food,  and  that  less 
highly  carbonated  in  warm  weather,  and  when  sitting  by  the 
fire  in  cold,  than  when  abroad  in  cold  weather,  is  before  the 
reader,  and  as  we  shall  in  due  time  develope  that  fundamental 
condition  of  health — BALANCE — we' dismiss  this  subject  of  ani- 
mal heat  for  the  kindred  one  of  the 

98.       REQUISITION    OF    FRESH    AIR,   ESPECIALLY    FOR    CHILDREN 

Oxygen   being  indispensable  to  life 8e,  and    being   derived 
mainly  from  the  air89,  the  necessity  for  constant  and  copious 
re-supplies  of  fresh  and  well  oxygenated  air  becomes  obvious. 
And  to  this,  the  perpetual  experience  of  every  human  being 
bears  ample  testimony.     How  dull  and  stupid  we  all  feel  aftei 
sitting  a  while  in  a  hot  room,  especially  if  heated  by  an  air 
tight  stove — an  article  I  would  never  sit  by  if  I  could  help  it 
because  while  it  rarefies  the  air  so  that  we  can  breath©  biv 


FRESH    AIR.  173 

little  oxygen  even  if  the  air  were  fresh,  it  prevents  its  circu- 
lation in  the  room,  so  that  we  soon  breathe  out  most  that  re- 
mains. Hence  the  accompanying  stagnation  of  the  blood, 
and  lethargy  of  body  and  mind.  But  start  out  into  the  fresh 
air,  and  how  differently  you  feel !  How  lively  your  body ! 
How  brisk  all  your  feelings !  How  clear  the  rnind !  How 
happy  the  whole  man  !  Every  human  being  ought  to  spend 
several  hours  every  day,  cold  or  warm,  in  the  open  air, 
coupled  with  much  bodily  activity.  Four  hours  of  out-door 
breathing  daily,  is  the  least  time  compatible  with  health  for 
adults,  though  ten  are  better;  while  children  require  a  greater 
amount  both  of  out-door  air  and  exercise,  because  theyhave, 
or  ought  to  have  a  higher  temperature90,  and  greater  vigor  in 
the  circulation,  because  that  circulation  has  more  to  do  in 
them  than  in  adults — has  to  BUILD  up  as  well  as  sustain  the 
system^  This  shutting  children  up  in  the  house,  even  in  cold 
weather,  this  being  so  afraid  of  a  little  fresh,  cool  air,  is  con- 
summate folly — is  downright  murder ;  for  there  is  no  num- 
bering the  deaths  this  extra  carefulness  has  occasioned.  Why, 
cool  air  is  not  poisonous.  It  is  healthy — more  so  than  warm 
air ;  because,  for  its  bulk,  it  contains  more  oxygen 9S,  that  great 
quickener  of  the  blood,  and  stimulator  of  muscular,  nervous, 
and  cerebral  action.  If  a  heated  atmosphere  had  been  best 
for  man,  nature  would  have  provided  it.  But  it  is  not  so.  It 
relaxes.  All  the  inhabitants  of  the  tropics  are  indolent,  men- 
tally and  physically.  All  northerners,  however  active  here, 
are  rendered  indolent  in  a  tropical  climate.  Hence  the  re- 
quisition of  more  or  less  cold  to  stir  up  the  system.  And  un- 
less parents  wish  to  make  inert  blockheads  of  their  children, 
do  not  keep  them  shut  up  in  a  hot  stove  room.  However 
cold  it  is,  let  them  out — for  all  children  delight  to  go — and 
their  lungs  will  soon  warm  them  up  and  keep  them  warm fs, 
And  if  your  dear, 'darling,  delicate,  puny  child  is  indeed  so 
weak,  that  fresh  air  gives  it  a  cold,  you  ought  to  be  sent  to 
prison  for  rendering  it  thus  tender — rather,  ought  not  to  have 
any  child  at  all.  This  brings  up  for  condemnation — 


15* 


174  RESPIRATION. 

99.      THE   VITIATED    ATMOSPHERE   OF   SCHOOL-ROOMS. 

Schools  are  great  disease-breeders  to  both  body  and  mind. 
Children  require  action,  not  confinement.  They  should  learn 
on  foot,  not  '-'sit  on  a  bench  and  say  A."  Especially  should 
they  have  an  abundance  of  fresh  air.  Yet  to  confine  two  or 
three  score  of  children  in  a  school-house  sixteen  by  twenty — 
enough  to  breathe  up  all  the  air  it  contains  in  a  few  minutes — 
and  to  burn  out  the  vitality  of  even  this  moiety  by  a  roaring 
fire — and"  then  to  keep  them  thus,  stuffed  with  food,  but  pant- 
ing for  breath  and  action,  ONE  QUARTER  OF  THEIR  LIVES,  and 
most  of  the  balance  not  much  better,  signs,  seals,  and  de- 
livers the  death-warrant  of  many  a  fond  and  lovely  embryo 
of  humanity.  Our  children  do  not  get  half  air  enough.  This 
occasions  their  being  puny,  sickly,  and  mortal.  No  wonder 
that  half  of  them  dre  in  childhood.  The  wonder  is  that  more 
do  not. 

Nor  are  cities  the  places  to  bring  up  children.  They  can- 
not go  out  of  doors  for  fear  of  getting  lost  or  run  over,  nor 
play  within,  because  ma,  grandma,  or  aunt  is  sick.  Nor  if 
they  could,  can  they  obtain  fresh  air  in  coal-heated  nurseries 
or  kitchens.  God  made  the  country — man  made  the  city. 
Cities  are  useful  only  to  heap  up  paltry  gold.  The  country, 
"  O  that's  the  place  for  me."  But,  parents,  whether  you 
inhabit  city  or  country,  see  to  it,  I  beseech  you,  that  youi 
children  have  a  full  supply  of  FRESH  AIR  DAILY  AND  PERPET- 
UALLY. 

Our  subject  also  shows  the  absolute  necessity  of 

100.       VENTILATION    IN    GENERAL, 

To  Say  nothing  of  the  importance  of  ventilating  churches 
lecture-rooms,  and  places  of  general  concourse.  Hear  A, 
Combe  on  this  subject. 

"  The  fatal  effects  of  breathing  highly  vitiated  air  may  easily  be 
made  the  subject  of  experiment.  When  a  mouse  is  confined  in  a 
large  and  tight  glass-jar  full  of  air,  it  seems  for  a  short  time  to  expe- 
rience no  inconvenience ;  but  in  proportion  as  the  consumption  of  oxy- 
gen and  the  exhalation  of  carbonic  acid  proceed,  it  begins  to  show  symp- 
toms of  uneasiness,  and  to  pant  in  its  breathing,  as  if  struggling  for  air; 
and  in  a  few  hours  it  dies,  convulsed  exactly  as  if  drowned  or  stran 


VENTILATION.  175 

gulated.  The  same  results  follow  the  deprivation  of  air  in  man 
and  in  all  animated  beings  ;  and  in  hanging,  death  results  not  from 
dislocation  of  the  neck,  as  is  often  supposed,  but  simply  because  the 
interruption  of  the  breathing  prevents  the  necessary  changes  from 
taking  place  in  the  constitution  of  the  blood. 

"  The  horrible  fate  of  the  146  Englishmen  who  were  shut  up  in 
the  Black  Hole  of  Calcutta,  in  1756,  is  strikingly  illustrative  of  the 
destructive  consequences  of  an  inadequate  supply  of  air.  The  whole 
of  them  were  thrust  into  a  confined  place,  eighteen  feet  square. 
There  were  only  two  very  small  windows  by  which  air  could  be 
admitted,  and  as  both  of  these  were  on  the  same  side,  ventilation 
was  utterly  impossible.  Scarcely  was  the  door  shut  upon  the 
prisoners,  when  their  sufferings  commenced,  and  in  a  short  time  a 
delirious  and  mortal  struggle  ensued  to  get  near  the  windows. 
Within  four  hours,  those  who  survived  lay  in  the  silence  of  apo- 
plectic stupor;  and  at  the  end  of  six  hours,  NINETY-SIX  were  relieved 
by  death !  In  the  morning,  when  the  doors  were  opened,  twenty- 
three  only  were  found  alive,  many  of  whom  were  subsequently  cut 
off  by  putrid  fever,  caused  by  the  dreadful  effluvia  and  corruption 
of  the  air. 

"  But,  it  may  be  said,  such  a  catastrbphe~as  the  above  could  hap- 
pen only  among  a  barbarous  and  ignorant  people.  One  would  think 
so ;  and  yet  such  is  the  ignorance  prevailing  among  ourselves,  that 
more  than  one  parallel  to  it  can  be  pointed  out  even  in  our  own 
history.  Of  two  instances  to  which  I  allude,  one  has  lately  been 
published  in  the  '  Life  of  Crabbe,'  the  poet.  When  ten  or  eleven 
years  of  age,  Crabbe  was  sent  to  a  school  at  Bungay.  '  Soon  after 
his  arrival,  he  had  a  veiy  narrow  escape.  He  and  several  of  his 
school-fellows  were  punished  for  playing  at  soldiers,  by  being  put 
into  a  large  dog-kennel,  known  by  the  terrible  name  of  the  '  Black 
Hole ;'  George  was  the  first  that  entered,  and  the  place  being 
crammed  full  with  offenders,  the  atmosphere  soon  became  pestilen- 
tially close.  The  poor  boy  in  vain  shrieked  that  he  was  about  to 
be  suffocated.  At  last,  in  despair,  he  bit  the  lad  next  to  him  vio- 
lently in  the  hand ;  '  Crabbe  is  dying,  Crabbe  is  dying,'  roared  the 
sufferer ;  and  the  sentinel  at  length  opened  the  door,  and  allowed 
the  boys  to  rush  out  into  the  air.  My  father  said,  '  A  minuto  more 
and  I  must  have  died.' ' — (Or  abbe's -Life,  by  his  Son.) 

"  The  other  instance  is  recorded  in  Walpole's  Letters,  and  is  the 
more  memorable,  because  it  was  the  pure  result  of  brutal  ignorance, 
and'not  at  all  of  cruelty  or  design.  'There  has  been  lately,'  says 
Walpole,  'the  most  shocking  scene  of  murder  imaginable  :  a  parcel 
of  DRUNKEN  constables  took  it  into  their  heads  to  put  the  laws  in 
execution  against  DISORDERLY  persons,  and  so  took  up  every  person 
they  met,  till  they  had  collected  five  or  six  and  twenty,  all  of  whom 
they  thrust  into  St.  Martin's  round-house,  where  they  kept  them 
all  night  with  doors  and  windows  closed.  The  poor  creatures,  who 
could  not  stir  or  breathe,  screamed  as  long  as  they  had  any  breath 
left,  begging  at  least  for  water ;  one  pnw  ws«teh  said  she  was  worth 
eighteen  peace,  and  would  gladly  gigp.it  for  a  draught  of  water,  but 


176  RESPIRATION. 

in  vain  !  So  well  did  they  keep  them  there,  that  in  the  morning  foui 
were  found  stifled  to  death  ;  two  died  soon  after,  and  a  dozen  more 
are  in  a  shocking  way.  In  short,  it  is  horrid  to  think  what  the 
poor  creatures  suffered  -  several  of  them  were  beggars,  who,  from 
having  no  lodging,  were  necessarily  found  on  the  street,  and  others 
honest  laboring-women.'  *  *  * 

"  I  do  not  mean  to  say,  that  in  all  the  above  instances  the  fatal  re- 
sults were  attributable  exclusively  to  vitiation  of  the  air  by  breathing. 
Fixed  air  may  have  been  disengaged  also  from  some  other  source; 
but  the  deteriorating  influence  of  respiration,  where  no  ventilation 
is  possible,  cannot  be  doubted.  According  to  Dr.  Bostock's  esti- 
mate, an  average  sized  man  consumes  about  45,000  cubic  inches  of 
oxygen,  and  gives  out  about  40,000  of  carbonic  acid  in  twenty-four 
hours,  or  18,750  of  ox-  ^)n,  and  16,666  of  carbonic  acid  in  ten 
hours,  which  is  nearly  f  '**>  time  during  which  the  sufferers  had  re- 
mained in  the  cabin  be*  •**  they  were  found.  As  they  were  two  in 
number,  the  quantity  or  oxygen  which  would  have  been  required 
for  iheir  consumption  **ras  equal  to  37,500  cubic  inches,  while  the 
carbonic  acid  given  out  *»«ti!d  amount  to  upwards  of  32,000  inches — 
a  source  of  impurity  "vhich,  added  to  the  constant  exhalation  of 
waste  matter  and  an<mn«  effluvia  from  the  lungs,  was  manifestly 
quite  equal  to  the  production  of  the  serious  consequences  which 
ensued  from  it,  and  which  no  one,  properly  acquainted  with  the 
conditions  essential  to  healthy  respiration,  would  ever  have  willingly 
encountered.  Even  supposing  that  the  cause  of  death  was  some 
disengagement  of  gas  within  the  vessel,  it  is  still  certain  that,  had 
the  means  of  ventilation  been  adequately  provided,  this  gas  would 
have  been  so  much  diluted,  and  so  quickly  dispersed,  that  it  would 
have  been  comparatively  innocuous. 

"  The  best  and  most  experienced  medical  officers  of  the  army 
and  navy,  are  always  the  most  earnest  in  insisting  on  thorough  ven« 
tilation  as  a  chief  preservative  of  health,  and  as  indispensable  for 
the  recovery  of  the  sick.  Sir  George  Ballingall  recurs  to  it  fre- 
quently, and  shows  the  importance  attached  to  it  by  Sir  John  Prin- 
gle,  Dr.  Jackson,  Sir  Gilbert  Blane,  and  others  of  equally  high 
authority.  Sir  John  Pringle  speaks  of  hospitals  being,  in  his  day, 
the  causes  of  much  sickness,  and  of  frequent  deaths,  *  on  account 
of  the  bad  air,  and  other  inconveniences  attending  them  ;'  and  Dr. 
Jackson,  in  insisting  on  '  height  of  roof  as  a  property  of  great  im- 
portance in  a  house  appropriated  to  the  reception  of  the  sick  of 
armies,'  adds  as  the  reason,  that  '  the  air  being  contaminated  by 
the  breathings  of  a  crowd  of  people  in  a  confined  space,  disease  is 
originated,  and  mortality  is  multiplied  to  an  extraordinary  extent. 
It  was  often  proved  in  the  history  of  the  late  war,  that  MORE  HU- 
MAN LIFE  WAS  DESTROYED  BY  ACCUMULATING  SICK  MEN  IN  LOW 
AND  ILL  VENTILATED  APARTMENTS,  THAN  BY  LEAVING  THEM  EX- 
POSED, IN  SEVERE  AND  INCLEMENT  WEATHER,  AT  THE  SIDE  OF  A 
HEDGE  OR  COMMON  DIKE.' 

"  In  the  same  volume  (p.  114)  the  reader  will  find  another  exam- 
ple not  less  painful  than  instructive  of  the  evils  arising,  first,  from 


r 

lei 


VENTILATION    OF    BED-ROOMS.  177 

crowding  together  a  greater  number  of  human  beings  than  the  air 
of  the  apartment  can  sustain,  and,  secondly,  from  the  total  neglect 
of  scientific  rules  in  effecting  ventilation.  In  the  summer  of  1811, 
a  'ow  typhoid  fever  broke  out  in  the  4th  battalion  of  the  Royals, 
then  quartered  in  Stirling  Castle.  In  many  instances,  violent  in- 
flammation of  the  lungs  supervened,  and  the  result  of  the  two  dis- 
eases was  generally  fatal.  On  investigating  the  circumstances  of 
this  fever,  it  was  found  that  rooms  of  twenty-one  feet  by  eighteen 
were  occupied  by  SIXTY  men,  and  that  others  of  thirty-one  feet  by 
twenty-one  were  occupied  by  SKVEJVTY-TWO  men !  To  prevent 
suffocation  the  windows  were  kept  open  all  night,  so  that  the  men 
were  exposed  at  once  to  strong  currents  of  cold  air,  and  to  'the 
heated  and  concentrated  animal  effluvia  necessarily  existing  in  such 
crowded  apartments ;  thus  subjecting  them  to  the  combined  effects 
of  typhus  fever,  and  of  pneumonic  inflammation.  In  the  less  crowded 
apartments  of  the  same  barrack  no  instances  of  fever  occurred.' 
The  men  who  were  directly  in  the  way  of  the  current  of  cold  air, 
were  of  course  those  who  suffered  from  inflammation. 

Mr.  Carmichael  justly  regards  impure  air  as  one  of  the  most 
werful  causes  of  scrofula,  and  accounts  for  the  extreme  preva- 
ence  of  the  disease  in  the  Dublin  Hteuse  of  Industry  at  the  time 
he  wrote,  (1809J  by  mentioning,  that  in  one  ward  of  moderate 
height,  sixty  feet  by  eighteen,  there  were  THIRTY-EIGHT  beds,  each 
containing  THREE  children,  or  more  than  one  hundred  in  all !  The 
matron  told  Mr.  Carmichael,  that '  there  is  no  enduring  the  air  of  this 
"  apartment  when  the  doors  are  first  thrown  open  in  the  morning  ; 
and  that  it  is  in  vain  to  raise  any  of  the  windows,  as  those  children 
who  happened  to  be  inconvenienced  by  the  cold,  close  them  as  soon 
as  they  have  an  opportunity.  The  air  they  breathe  in  the  day  is 
little  better  :  many  are  confined  to  the  apartments  they  sleep  in,  or 
crowded  to  the  number  of  several  hundreds  in  the  school-room.' 
Can  any  one  read  this  account,  and  wonder  at  the  prevalence  of 
scrofula  under  such  circumstances!" 

101.       THE    DUE    VENTILATION    OF    SLEEPING    APARTMENTS. 

Is  still  more  important,  because  we  consume  quite  as  great 
a  proportion  of  air,  yet  are  far  more  liable  to  negjject  its  re- 
supply.  Most  of  us  spend  ONE  THIRD  OF  OUR  LIVES  in  little, 
eight  by  ten  bed-rooms,  scarcely  seven  feet  high,  and  capable 
of  holding  only  from  five  to  eight  hundred  feet  of  air — not  an 
hour's  breathing  timber  !  And  then  every  crevice,  even  to 
the  key-hole,  jmust  be  stuffed  to  prevent  the  ingress  of  fresh 
air.  Look  at  our  factory  operatives— often  six  rersons  con- 
fined  all  night  in  a  little  room  not  exceeding  ten  feet  square, 
and  seven  high !  No  wonder  their  vocation  is  unhealthy. 
And  then  low  repulsive  the  smell  of  bed-rooms  generally  in 


178  RESPIRATION. 

the  morning,  observable  on  quitting  them  a  few  minutes,  and 
returning.  Instead  of  being  thus  miserably  supplied  with  fresh 
air,  they  should  be  large,  and  especially  high,  and  arranged 
so  as  to  admit  free  ventilation.  A  draft  directly  upon  you 
may  be  objectionable,  yet  even  this  is  far  less  so  than  con- 
fined air,  and  can  be  renderecl  harmless  by  a  good  supply  of 
bed-clothes — though  the  less  of  these,  and  keep  comfortable, 
the  better.  Large,  airy  sleeping  apartments  would  add  one 
fourth  to  the  aggregate  duration  of  human  life.  They  should 
be  the  largest  rooms  in  our  houses. 

Yet'1  the  general  idea  obtains  that  night  air  is  unwholesome, 
and  often  pestilential,  than  which  nothing  is-  more  unfounded. 
The  Deity  render  night  air  unwholesome,  and  yet  compel  us 
to  breathe  it !  This  supposition  conflicts  with  the  whole 
economy  of  nature.  If  night  air  had  been  really  injurious, 
she  would  have  allowed  us  to  sleep  without  breathing,  for  she 
never  compels  the  least  thing  injurious.  Night  air  is  equally 
as  wholesome  as  day  air.  It  may  be  damper,,  but  that  does 
not  hurt  it  for  breathing  purposes.  It  is  usually  cooler,  and, 
therefore,  contains  more  oxygen,  and  is,  therefore,  even  better 
than  day  air — at  least  for  sleeping  purposes.  Why  are  we 
so  restless  in  hot  summer  nights,  and  why  sleep  so  sweetly, 
and  wake  up  so  invigorated  in  cold  fall  nights,  but  because 
the  needed  supply  of  oxygen  is  so  much  greater  in  the  latter 
instance  ?  So  far  from  being  injurious,  I  give  it  as  my 
deliberate  opinion,  that  sleeping  with  open  windows  would 
greatly  promote  health.  I  prefer  to  do  so,  however  stormy  or 
boisterous  the  weather,  and  know  of  several  who  sleep  thus 
summer  ar^d  winter,  ev.ery  one  of  whom  is  remarkably  robust 
and  healthy.  Yet  if  you  adopt  this  practice,  adopt  it  by 
degrees,  so  as  not  to  take  cold.  Special  attention  is  invited  to 

102.       BLUE    VEINS,    A    SIGN    OF    INSUFFICIENT    BREATHING. 

The  blood  is  rendered  dark  by  the  carbon  it.  has  taken  up. 
And  the  darker  it  is,  the  greater  the  amount  of  carbon  in  it. 
Now  this  carbon  should  pass  off  through  the  lungs,  and  it 
will  do  so  when  we  breathe  abundantly.  But  when  we  do 
not,  a  sufficient  amount  of  the  nitrogen  contained  in  the  air 


PERSPIRATION.  179 

we  breathe  is  not  brought  alongside  of  the  carbonic  acid  con- 
tained  in  the  blood  to  carry  oft'  all  of  the  latter,  so  that  it  is 
obliged  to  return  with  the  blood  into  the  system,  and,  be- 
ing a  rank  poison  as  well  as  stagnating,  it  poisons  and  pros- 
trates the  vital  organs,  diminishes  life,  and  engenders  disease. 
Blueness  of  veins  in  children  or  adults  is  a  sure  index  of  the 
superabundance  of  this  poison  and  of  insufticient  breathing. 
Let  such  both  eat  less  and  breathe  more,  so  as  to  thin  and 
redden  the  blood.  True,  the  blood  in  the  veins  should  be 
dark,  but  not  dark  enough  to  show  through.  And  when  visi- 
'ble,  see  to  it,  as  you  value  life,  that  thjs  powerful  disease- 
breeder  is  removed  by  a  more  thorough  oxydization  of  the 
blood. 

An  entire  volume  might  be  written  on  fhis  subject  of  venti- 
lation ;  but  all-important  as  it  is,  our  proposed  limits  do  not 
allow  its  farther  prosecution.  We  say  in  conclusion,  attend 
to  breathing  even  more  than  to  eating.  Make  provision  for  a 
constant  re-supply  of  fresh  air  even  more  than  for  good  food. 
And  ye  parents,  see  that  your  children  have  it  in  luxurious 
abundance  night  and  day. 


SECTION  III. 

PERSPIRATION,    OR    THE    STRUCTURE,    FUNCTIONS,    AND   CLEAN- 
SING   OF    THE    SKIN. 

103.       WATER   ESSENTIAL    TO   LIFE. 

WATER  covers  a  great  part  of  the  earth's  surface,  and  con- 
stitutes a  large  proportion  of  alUhat  lives.  Nor  can  anything 
grow  without  it,  nor,  mosses  excepted,  any  dry  thing  live. 
The  ancients  supposed  it  the  parent  of  all  endowed  with  life, 
and  experience  teaches  us  that  without  it  plant  and  animal 
parch  up  and  die. 

Nor  can  man  live  without  it.  Indeed  three-fourths  of  him 
are  composed  of  water,  and  so  are  four- fifths  of  his  blood. 
Whether  this  element  is  required  on  its  own  account,  or  as 
the  great  PORTER  of  the  system,  we  will  not  now  stop  to  en 


180  PERSPIRATION. 

quire ;  but,  be  its  use  what  it  may,  it  is  even  as  essential  t* 
life  as. solid  food*  nor  is  anything  but  air  more  so. 

If  asked — "How,  then,  could  Dr.  Alcott  live  over  a  year 
without  drinking  a  drop  of  liquid,  and  others  a  less  time,  and 
even  without  experiencing  thirst  ?"  I  answer — All  we  eat 
contains  it.  Meat  consists  of  about  three-fourths  water;  car- 
rots, beets,  turnips,  potatoes,  and  cabbages,  about  nine-tenths ; 
eggs  about  seven-tenths;  milk  nearly  nine-tenths ;  and  thus 
of  other  kinds  of  food.  So  that  we  cannot  eat  without .intro- 
ducing  it  into  the  animal  economy. 

Man  was  also  undoubtedly  ordained  to  drink  as  well  as  eat. 
To  this  end  he  has  a  drinking  organ — Bibativeness,  or  Aqua- 
tiveness — located  anteriorly  to  Alimentiveness,  adapting  him 
both  to  the  existence  of  water  and  this  constitutional  demand 
for  drink.  Water  is  also  manufactured  throughout  every 
portion  of  the  system 95.  Whether  we  drink  water  or  not, 
whether  it  abounds  in  the  system,  or  is  deficient,  we  are 
obliged  to  receive  hydrogen  into  the  system  with  our  food, 
attd  oxygen  through  our  lungs,  so  that  these  two  gases  are 
forced  into  close  proximity  in  the  capillary  blood-vessels,  and 
whenever  thus  brought  together,  they  unite  in  the  proportion 
, 4o  form  water  till  one  or  the  other  is  consumed94.  So' that, 
With  all  this  demand  for  water,  man  could  probably  exist 
without  taking  any  water  even  with  his  food. 

104.       PERSPIRATION. 

But  all  the  water  thus  taken  into  and  manufactured  within 
the'  system  does  not  remain  there.  Indeed,  it  is  perpetually 
given  oft'  through  the  lungs,  the  skin,  and  every  avenue  of 
escape  throughout  the  body.  The  amount  given  off  by  a 
health/  ad  ui' "daily  is  estimated  at  about  forty  ounces,  though 
It  of  course  varies  in  different  individuals,  and  in  the  same 
individual  at  different  times,  according  as  he  drinks,  exercises, 
and  the  like,  much  or  little. 

The  lungs  exhale  large  quantities  of  water,  as  seen  in 
breathing  upon  glass, and  its  freezing  on  the  beard  in  a  cold 
morning.  The  moisture  expired  with  the  breath  in  a  crowded 
room  also  occasions  that  "  sweating"  of  the  windows  so  often 


THE    SKIN ITS    STRUCTURE    AND   OFFICE.  181 

observed.     But  the  great  outlet  for  the  escape  of  water,  after 
it  has  fulfilled  its  mission  of  life,  is 

105.       THE    SKI£    AND    ITS    STRUCTURE. 

This  thin  and  exceedingly  tough  membrane  is  stretched 
over  the  entire  body,  and  also  lines  all  its  apertures.  It  con- 
sists of  three  coatings — the  cuticle,  or  epidermis,  a  horny, 
insensible  over  coat,  such  as  we  see  often  rubbed  up  by 
bruises,  and  raised  in  blisters.  This  outside  skin  is  thin  over 
the  joints  so  *as  not  to  obstruct  their  motion,  but  thick  in  the 
palms  of  the  hands  and  soles  of  the  feet,  even  from  birth — a 
wise  provision  indeed.  The  second  coating,  called  rete  muco- 
sum,  constitutes  the  middle  coating,  and  contains  that  coloring 
matter  which  paints  the  various  races  their  various  colors — 
the  African,  black,  for  example.  The  cutis,  dermis,  or  true 
skin,  is  the  great  instrumentality  of  sensation,  absorption,  and 
exhalation,  the  former  of  which  will  be  treated  in  its  place. 

This  cutis  is  perfectly  full  of  little,  pores,  thousands  being 
contained  in  every  square  inch.  It  is  also  filled  with  two  sets 
of  capillary  network,  nerves,  and  blood-vessels,  the  latter 
being  especially  numerous  here  so  as  to  support  the  former, 
and  thus  create  sensation.  Indeed,  it  is  probably  composed 
mainly  by  these  tissues,  and  its  innumerable  pores  are  proba- 
bly formed  by  their  interweaving.  Through  these  pores  the 
waste  water,  and  much  of  the  excrementitious  matter  engen- 
dered during  the  vital  process,  escapes,  causing  the  perspira- 
tion to  be  sensible  or  insensible  according  as  it  is  more  or  less 
copious  Sensible  perspiration  causes  sweat  to  ooze  out  and 
stand  in  drops,  or  run  down  in  streams,  from  all  parts  of  the 
body,  as  when  we  take  violent  exercise  in  hot  weather,  drink 
copiously  of  warm  water,  and  the  like. 

106.       INSENSIBLE    PERSPIRATION,    AND    ITS    IMPORTANCE. 

This  is  perpetually  taking  place  from  all  parts  of  tfye  skin. 
This  is  rendered  plainly  perceptible  by  inserting  the  hand  in 
a  glass  tumbler  turned  bottom  upwards,  or  by  laying  the  hand 
en  glass,  or  even  drawing  the  finger  slowly  across  it. 

A  contrivance  as  deeply  laid  as  this,  cannot  but  perform 
16 


182  PERSPIRATION. 

some  most  important  end  in  the  animal  economy.  And  so  it 
does.  These  forty  ounces  of  water  do  not  steam  forth  per- 
petually from  the  system  alone,  but  bring  along  out  with  them 
much  of  the  waste  matter  engendered  by  the  vital  process. 
This  process  is  one  of  perpetual  WASTE.  It  is  estimated  that 
all  the  matter  in  the  system,  at  any  given  time,  becomes  use- 
less, because  its  vitality  is  "  used  up,"  js  carried  off,  and  its 
place  re-supplied  by  foreign  substances  every  seven  years. 
Probably  half  that  time  would  be  nearer  the  fact.  Of  course 
if  this  matter  were  allowed  to  remain  just  where  it  is  created, 
the  system  would  soon  become  as  fikhy  as  the  Augean  stables. 
To  prevent  this  it  is  carried  off  as  fast  as  it  is  manufactured. 

How  carried  off?  By  that  same  porter  which  brought  it — 
WATER.  As  the  blood  brings  a  load  of  oxygen,  and,  as  soon 
as  it  is  unloaded,  takes  on  the  carbonic  acid  created  by  the 
combustion  of  that  oxygen 93,  so  after  the  water  in  the  blood 
has  brought  out  and  deposited  its  freight  of  fresh  muscle, 
nerve,  etc.,  it  takes  on  another  freight  of  waste  matter,  and 
issues  forth  out  of  the  system  in  the  form  of  steam. 

What  the  author  says,  he  generally  knows — rarely  guessing 
or  theorizing.  Yc  allow  a  single  departure.  But  for  some  such 
expulsive  principle,  the  water,  too,  would  lay  inert  in  the  sys- 
tem. FORCE  is  necessary  to  expel  it,  and  doubly  so  to  expel 
its  accompanying  corruption.  Now  may  not  this  force  be 
imparted  by  that  very  process  which  both  manufactures  the 
water 94  and  converts  it  into  steam  ?  In  other  words,  does  pot 
this  conversion  of  water  into  steam,  which  necessarily  manu- 
factures force,  create  the  force  required  to  expel  both  the 
water  and  its  freight  ? 

But  be  the  means  of  such  egress  what  it  may,  out  it  comes, 
and  drags  along  out  with  it  MORE  THAN  HALF  of  the  refuse  of 
all  we  eat,  drink,  and  take  into  the  system.  Though  the  kid- 
neys, bowels,  and  lungs  help  to  evacuate  this  waste  matter, 
yet  the  skin  is  the  great  sluice-way  for  the  egress  of  excre- 
mentitious  matter — the  scavenger  of  life  which  collects  up  all 
the  leavings  and  filth  out  of  the  highways  and  byways  of  the 
city  of  life,  and  empties  them  ou;  through  this  gateway.  This 
shows  the 


KEEPING  THE  PORES  OPEN.  183 

107    IMPORTANCE  OF  KEEPING  THE  PORES  OP  THE  SKIN  OPEW. 

Theje  pores  closed,  this  waste  matter  is  shut  within  the 
system  to  clog  the  organs  of  life  on  the  one  hand,  and  breed 
disease  in  the  system  on  the  other ;  for,  be  it  remembered,  that 
most  of  this  waste  matter,  like  carbonic  acid5*3,  is  POISONOUS  as 
well  as  in  the  way.  It  MUST  PASS  OUT,  or  it  extinguishes  life. 
And  woe  to  that  system  which  retains  it  within  its  borders ! 
A.  Combe  ably  enforces  this  point  as  follows  : — 

"In  tracing  the  connection  between  suppressed  perspiration  and 
the  production  of  individual  diseases,  we  shall  find  that  those  organs 
which  possess  some  similarity  of  function  sympathize  most  closely 
with  each  other.  Thus  the  skin,  the  bowels,  the  lungs,  the  liver, 
and  the  kidneys,  sympathize  readily,  because  they  have  all  the 
confmon  office  of  throwing  waste  matter-eat  of  the  system,  each  in 
a  way  peculiar  to  its  own  structure ;  so  that  if  the  exhalation  from 
the  skin,  for  example,  be  stopped  by  long  exposure  to  cold,  the 
large  quantity  of  waste  matter  which  it  was  charged  to  excrete,  and 
which  in  itself  is  hurtful  to  the  system,  will  most  probably  be  thrown 
upon  one  or  other  of  the  above-named  organs,  whose  function  will 
consequently  become  excited ;  and  if  any  of  them,  from  constitu- 
tional or  accidental  causes,  be  already  weaker*  han  the  rest,  as  often 
happens,  its  health  will  naturally  be  the  first  to  suffer.  In  this 
way,  the  bowels  become  irritated  in  one  individual,  and  occasion 
bowel  complaint ;  while  in  another,  it  is  the  lungs  which  become 
affected,  giving  rise  to  catarrh  or  common  cold,  or  perhaps  even  to 
inflammation.  When,  on  the  other  hand,  all  these  organs  are  in  a 
state  of  vigorous  health,  a  temporary  increase  of  function  takes 
place  in  them,  and  relieves  the  system,  without  leading  to  any  local 
disorder ;  and  the  skin  itself  speedily  resumes  its  activity,  and  re- 
stores the  balance  among  them. 

"  One  of  the  most  obvious  illustrations  of  this  reciprocity  of  ac- 
tion is  afforded  by  any  convivial  company,  seated  in  a  warm  room 
in  a  cold  evening,  The  heat  of^lhe  room,  the  food  and  wine,  and 
the  excitement  of  the  moment,  stimulate  the  skin,  cause  an  afflux 
of  blood  to  the  surface,  and  increase  in  a  high  degree  the  flow  of 
the  insensible  perspiration ;  which  thus,  while  the  heat  continues, 
carries  off  an  undue  share  of  the  fluids  of  the  body,  and  leaves  the 
kidneys  almost  at  rest.  But  the  moment  the  company  goes  into 
the  cold  external  air,  a  sudden  reversal  of  operations  takes  place ; 
the  cold  ihills  the  surface,  stops  the  perspiration,  and  directs  the 
current  of  the  blood  towards  the  internal  organs,  wttich  presently 
become  excited — and,  under  this  excitation,  the  kidneys,  for  exam- 
ple, will  in  a  few  minutes  secrete  as  much  of  their  peculiar  fluid, 
as  they  did  in  as  many  of  the  preceding  hours.  The  reverse  of 
this  again,  is  common  in  diseases  obstructing  the  secretion  from 
the  kidneys  •  for  the  perspirat*;>a  from  the  skin  is  then  altered  in 


184  PERSPIRATION. 

quantity  and  quality,  and  acquires  much  of  the  peculiar  smell  «>f 
the  urinary  fluid. 

"  When  the  lungs  are  weak,  and  their  lining  membrane  is  habit- 
ually relaxed,  and  secretes  an  unusual  amouat  of  mucus  from  its 
surface,  the  mass  thrown  inwards  upon  the  lungs  by  cold  applied 
to  the  skin,  increases  that  secretion  to  a  high  degree.  Were  this 
secretion  to  accumulate,  it  would  soon  fill  up  the  air-cells  of  the 
lungs,  and  cause  suffocation ;  'but  to  obviate  this  danger,  the  Creator 
has  so  constituted  the  lungs,  that  accumulated  mucus  or  any  foreign 
body  coming  in  contact  with  them,  excites  the  convulsive  effort 
called  coughing,  by  which  a  violent  and  rapid  expiration  takes  place, 
with  a  forco  sufficient  to  hurry  the  mucus  or  other  foreign  body 
along  with  it ;  just  as  peas  are  discharged  by  boys  with  much  force 
through  short  tubes  by  a  sudden  effort  of  blowing.  Thus,  a  check 
given  to  perspiration,  by  diminishing'the  quantity  of  blood  previously 
circulating  on  the  surface,  naturally  leads  very  often  to  increased 
expectoration  and  cough,  or,  in  other  words,  to  common  cold. 

"  The  lungs  excrete,  as  already  noticed,  and  as  we  shall  after- 
wards more  fully  see,  a  large  proportion  of  waste  materials  from 
the  system  ;  and  the  kidneys,  the  liver,  and  the  bowels,  have  in  so 
far  a  similar  office.  In  consequence  of  this  alliance  with  the  skin, 
these  parts  are  more  intimately  connected  with  each  other  in 
healthy  and  diseased  action  than  with  other  organs.  But  it  is  a 
general  law,  that  whenever  an  organ  is  unusually  delicate,  it  will 
be  affected  by  any  oause  of  disease- more  easily  than  those  which 
are  sound  :  so  that,  if  the  nervous  systenij  for  example,  be  weaker 
than  other  parts,  a  chill  will  be  more  likely  to  disturb  its  health  than 
that  of  the  lungs,  which  are  supposed,  in  this  instance,  to  be  con- 
stitutionally stronger ;  or,  if  the  muscular  and  fibrous  organizations 
be  unusually  susceptible  of  disturbance,  either  from  previous  ill- 
ness or  from  natural  predisposition,  they  will  be  the  first  to  suffer, 
and  rheumatism  may  ensue ;  and  so  on.  And  hence  the  utility 
to  the  physician  of  an  intimate  acquaintance  with  the  previous 
habits  and  constitutions  of  his  patients,  and  the  advantage  of  adapt- 
ing the  remedies  to  the  nature  of  the  cause,  when  it  can  be  discov- 
ered, as  well  as  to  the  disease  itself.  A  bowel  complaint,  for  in- 
stance, may  arise  from  over-eating;  as  well  as  from  a  check  to  per- 
spiration ;  but  although  the  thing  to  be  cured  is  the  same,  the  MEANS 
of  cure  ought  obviously  to  be  different.  In  the  one  instance,  an 
emetic  or  laxative  to  carry  off  the  offending  cause,  and  in  the  other 
a  diaphoretic  to  open  the  skin,  will  be  the  most  rational  and  effica- 
cious remedies.  Facts  like  these  expose  well  the  glaring  ignorance 
and  effrontery  of  the  quack,  who  affirms  that  his  one  remedy  will 
cure  every  form  of  disease.  Were  the  public  not  equally  ignorant 
with  himself,  their  credulity  would  cease  to  aSbrd  to  his  prwurop- 
tion  the  rich  field  in  which  it  now  revels. 

"  The  close  sympathy  between  the  skin  and  the  stomach  »nd 
bowels  has  often  been  noticed,  and  it  is  now  well  understood  that 
most  of  the  obstinate  eruptions  which  appear  on  the  face  and  rest 
of  the  surface,  owe  their  origin  to  disorders  of  the  digestive  organs, 


SUPPRESSED    PERSPIRATION.  185 

and  are  most  successfully  cured  by  treatment  directed  to  the  inter- 
nal disease.  Even  among  the  lower  animals,  the  sympathy  between 
the  two  is  so  marked  as  to  have  arrested  attention.  Thus,  in 
speaking  of  the  horse,  Delabere  Blaine  says,  'By  a  well-known 
consent  of  parts  between  the  skin  and  alimentary  canal  in  general, 
but  between  the  first  passages  and  the  stomach  in  particular,  it  fol- 
lows, in  almost  every  instance,  that  when  one  of  these  becomes 
affected,  the  other  takes  on  a  sympathetic  derangement  also,  and 
the  condition  is  then  morbid  throughout.  From  close  observation 
and  the  accumulation  of  numerous  facts,  I  am  disposed  to  think, 
that  so  perfect  is  this  sympathetic  consent  between  these  two  dis- 
tant parts  or  organs,  that  they  change  the  order  of  attack  as  circum- 
stances occur.  Thus,  when  the  skin  is  primarily  affected,  the 
stomach  becomes  secondarily  so*  and  vice  versa,'  so  that  'a  sudden 
check  to  the  natural  or  acquired  heat  of  the  body,  particularly  if 
aggravated  by  the  evaporation  of  a  perspiring  state,'  as  often  brings 
on  disease  of  some  internal  organ,  as  if  the  cause  were  applied  to 
the  organ  itself. 

"  In  noticing  this  connection  between  the  suppression  of  perspira- 
tion and  the  appearance  of  internal  disease,  I  do  not  mean  to  affirm 
that  the  effect  is  produced  by  the  physical  transference  of  the  sup- 
pressed exhalation  to  the  internal  organ.  In  many  instances,  the 
chief  impression  seems  to  be  made  on  the  nervous  system ;  and 
the  manner  in  which  it  gives  rise  to  the  resulting  disetise  is  often 
extremely  obscure.  Our  knowledge  of  the  animal  functions  is, 
indeed,  still  so  imperfect,  that  we  daily  meet  with  many  occurren- 
ces of  which  no  explanation  can  be  given.  But  it  is  nevertheless 
of  high  utility  to  make  known  the  fact,  that  a  connection  does  exist 
between  two  orders  of  phenomena,  as  it  calls  attention  to  their 
more  accurate  observation,  and  leads  to  the  adoption  of  useful  prac- 
tical rules,  even  when  their  mode  of  operation  is  not  understood. 
Nothing,  indeed,  can  be  more  delusive  than  the  rash  application  of 
merely  physical  laws  to  the  explanation  of  the  phenomena  of  liv- 
ing beiags.  Vitality  is  a  principle  superior  to,  and  in  continual 
warfare  with,  the  laws  which  regulate  the  actions  of  inanimate 
bodies ;  and  it  is  only  after  life  has  become  extinct  that  these  laws 
regain  the  mastery,  and  lead  to  the  rapid  decomposition  of  the  ani- 
mal machine.  In  studying  the  functions  of  the  human  body,  there- 
fore, we  must  be  careful  not  to  hurry  to  conclusions,  before  taking 
time  to  examine  the  influence  of  the  vital  principle  in  modifying  the 
expected  results. 

"  It  is  in  consequence  of  the  sympathy  and  reciprocity  of  ac- 
tion existing  between  the  skin  and  the  internal  organs  that  burns 
and  even  scalds  of  no  very  great  extent  prove  fatal,  by  inducing  in- 
internal,  generally  intestinal,  inflammation.  By  disordering  or  dis- 
organizing a  large  nervous  and  exhaling  surface,  an  extensive  burn 
causes  not  only  a  violent  nervous  commotion,  but  a  continued  par- 
tial suspension  of  an  important  excretion  ;  and,  when  death  ensues 
at  some  distance  of  time,  it  is  almost  always  in  consequence  of 
inflammation  being  excited  in  the  bowels  or  sympathizing  organ- 
16* 


186  PERSPIRATION. 

So  intimate,  indeed,  is  this  connection,  that,  some  surgeons  of  great 
experience,  such  as  the  late  Baron  DUTUYTREN,  of  the  Hotel  Dieu, 
while  they  point  to  internal  inflammation  as  in  such  cases  the  gen- 
eral cause  of  death,  doubt  if  recovery  ever  takes  place,  when 
more  than  one-eighth  of  the  surface  of  the  body  is  severely  burnt. 
And  whether  this  estimate  be  correct  or  not,  the  facts  from  which 
it  is  drawn  clearly  demonstrate  the  importance  of  the  relation  sub- 
sisting betwixt  the  skin  and  the  other  excreting  organ's*.' 

*'  In  some  constitutions,  a  singular  enough  sympathy  exists  be- 
tween the  skin  and  the  bowels.  Dr.  A.  T.  THOMSON,  in  his  work 
on  Materia  Medica,  (p.  42,)  mentions  that  he  is  acquainted  with  a 
clergyman  who  cannot  bear  the  skin  to  be  sponged  with  vinegar 
and  water,  or  any  diluted  acid,  without  suffering  spasm  and  violent 
griping  of  the  bowels.  The  reverse  operation  of  this  sympathy  is 
exemplified  in  the  frequent  production  of  nettle-rash  and  other 
eruptions  on  the  skin,  by  shell-fish  and  other  substances  taken  into 
the  stomach.  Dr.  Thomson  tells  us,  that  the  late  Dr.  Gregory 
could  not  eat  the  smallest  portion  of  the  white  of  an  egg,  without 
experiencing  an  attack  of  an  eruption  like  nettle-rash.  According 
to  the  same  author,  even  strawberries  have  been  known  to  cause 
fainting,  followed  by  a  petechial  efflorescence  of  the  skin. 

"  We  have  seen  that  the  insensible  perspiration  removes  from 
the  system,  without  trouble  and  without  consciousness,  a  large 
quantity  of  useless  materials,  and  at  the  same  time  keeps  the  skin 
soft  and  moist,  and  thereby  fits  it  for  the  performance  of  its  func- 
tions as  the  organ  of  an  external  sense.  In  addition  to  these  pur- 
poses, the  Creator  has,  in  his  omniscience  and  foresight,  and  with 
that  regard  to  simplicity  of  means  which  betokens  a  profoundness 
of  thought  inconceivable  to  us,  superadded  another,  scarcely  less 
important,  and  which  is  in  some  degree  implied  in  the  former ;  I 
mean  the  proper  regulation  of  the  bodily  heat.  It  is  well  known 
that,  in  the  polar  regions  and  in  the  torrid  zone,  under  every 
variety  of  circumstances,  the  human  body  retains  nearly  the  same 
temperature,  however  different  may  be  that  of  the  air  by  Which  it 
is  surrounded.  This  is  a  property  peculiar  to  life,  and,  in  conse- 
quence of  it,  even  vegetables  have  a  power  of  modifying  their  own 
temperature,  though  in  a  much  more  limited  degree.  Without 
this  power  of  adaptation,  it  is  obvious  that  man  must  have  been 
chained  for  life  to  the  climate  which  gave  him  birth,  and  even  then 
have  suffered  constantly  from  the  change  of  seasons ;  whereas,  by 
possessing  it,  he  can  retain  life  in  a  temperature  sufficiently  cold  to 
freeze  mercury,  and  is  able  for  a  time  to  sustain,  unharmed,  a  heat 
more  than  sufficient  to  boil  water,  or  even  to  bake  meat.  Witness 
the  wintering  of  Captain  Parry  and  his  companions  in  the  Polar 
Regions ;  and  the  experiments  of  Blagden,  Sir  Joseph  Banks,  and 
others,  who  remained  for  many  minutes  in  a  room  heated  to  260°, 
or  about  50°  above  the  temperature  of  boiling  water.  The  chief 
agents  in  this  wonderful  adaptation  of  man  to  his  external  situation, 
are  undoubtedly  the  skin  and  the  lungs,  in  both  of  which  the  power 
is  intimately  connected  with  the  condition  of  their  respective  exha- 


COLDS.  187 

lations.     But  it  is  of  the  skin  alone,  as  an  agent  in  reducing  animal 
heat,  that  we  are  at  present  to  speak. 

u  The  sources  of  animal  heat  are  not  yet  demonstrably  ascer- 
tained ;  but  that  it  is  constantly  generated  and  constantly  expended 
has  been  long  known ;  and  if  any  considerable  disproportion  occurs 
between  these  processes,  it  is  at  the  immediate  risk  of  health. 
During  repose,  or  passive  exercise,  such  as  riding  in  a  carriage  or 
sailing,  the  surplus  heat  is  readily  carried  off  by  the  insensible  per- 
spiration from  the  lungs  and  skin,  and  by  the  contact  of  the  colder 
air;  but  when  the  amount  of  heat  generated  is  increased,  as  du- 
ring active  exercise,  an  increased  expenditure  becomes  immediately 
necessary." 

108.       COLDS    AND    THEIR    COXSEQUENG**' 

Colds  are  caused  by,  and  even  consist  in,  SUPPRESSED  PER- 
SPIRATION  ;  nor  in  anything  else.  They  are  occasioned  thus : 
cold  always  contracts.  This  is  an  established  law  of  things. 
Hence,  a  sudden  change  of  the  temperature  of  the  skin  from 
heat  to  cold,  causes  its  pores  to  contract ;  many  of  them  it 
closes.  This  shows  why  we  perspire  so  little  in  colds,  and 
also  in  fevers — especially  obdurate  colds.  Nor  do  they  consist 
in  anything  else  than  this  closing  of  these  pores.  And  the 
injury  they  inflict  arises  mainly  from  their  shutting  up  this 
waste  matter  in  the  system.  And  the  reason  why,  during 
colds,  the  lungs,  nose,  etc.,  discharge  copiously  a  thick,  yel 
low  phlogm,  is,  that  this  corruption,  shut  in  by  the  closing  of 
these  pores,  yet  being  hostile  to  life,  is  carried  to  the  lungs, 
and  converted  into  phlegm,  to  the  kidneys,  bowels,  and  even  to 
the  brain,  and  discharged  through  the  nose  and  all  the  other 
outlets  j  and  hence  that  increase  of  all  these  secretions  as 
mentioned  by  Combe. 

Many  of  us  know  by  experience,  that  these  cold  customers 
are  exceedingly  troublesome — know  how  dull,  feverish,  rest- 
less, and  miserable  they  render  us,  and  how  full  of  aches, 
and  pains  they  fill  us.  Colds  are  the  principal  cause  of  teeth- 
aches.  If  you  have  a  bad  tooth,  it  rarely  troubles  you  except 
after  you  have  taken  cold,  and  the  way  to  cure  this  painful 
malady  is,  to  cure  that  cold  which  is  fts  exciting  cause. 

Fevers  too,  are  mainly  the  results  of  colds.  That  sand-bar 
of  health,  the  fever  and  ague,  makes  its  attack  in  company 
with  colda.  Avoid  them,  and  you  escape  it.  And  these 


188  PERSPIRATION. 

neighborhood  distempers  or  epidemics  which  sweep  over  city 
and  country,  affecting  nearly  all,  prostrating  many,  and  cut- 
ting off  more  or  less  in  the  midst  of  life,  are  generally  only 
colds,  and  are  thus  prevalent  because  certain  states  of  the  at- 
mosphere have  conspired  to  occasion  colds,  and  these  the 
choleras,  influenzas,  or  other  prevailing  diseases.  Avoid  these 
colds,  and  these  plagues  will  pass  you  by  as  those  of  Egypt 
did  the  Israelites.  Nor  can  you  have  a  cold  without  having 
a  fever.  Hence  the  fallacy  of  that  proverb,  "  stuff  a  cold 
and  starve  a  fever,"  for  colds  cause  fevers.  Though  fevers 
may  be  caused  by  other  violations  of  the  laws  of  health,  yet 
colds  always  induce  fevers.  Hence,  the  adage  "stuff  a  cold 
and  starve  a  fever,"  is  erroneous.  Bilious,  and  kindred  at- 
tacks will  be  found  almost  always  to  have  supervened  on  very 
severe  colds,  they  generally  commencing  with  chills,  just  as 
colds  do ;  and  though  the  stomach  is  also  disabled,  yet,  but  for 
the  cold,  the  stomach  would  not  have  been  broken  down.  It 
may  have  been  previously  foul,  and  have  thus  generated  by 
means  of  imperfect,  digestion,  a  great  amount  of  corruption, 
which,  however,  open  pores  would  have  continued  to  carry 
off;  whereas,  this  outlet  closed,  it  is  retained,  accumulates, 
obstructs,  poisons,  and  at  length  prostrates,  perhaps  destroys 
life.  I  do  not  hesitate  to  reiterate  what  I  have  long  and  widely 
declared,  in  lectures  and  works,  that  I  regard  colds  as  the 
cause  of  more  than  half  the  diseases  of  our  climate — of  nearly 
all  except  those  created  by  impaired  digestion.  Indeed,  even 
when  the  latter  breeds  disease  perpetually,  open  pores  carry 
it  off  as  continually,  so  that  little  damage  is  done.  But  shut 
these  pores,  and  besides  the  waste  matter  retained,  all  that 
corruption  engendered  by  imperfection  in  any  of  the  vital  or 
gans,  'is  also  shut  in  to  poison  and  destroy.  In  short,  keej 
clear  of  colds,  and  you  will  escape  disease ;  because  other 
causes  will  rarely  be  sufficient  to  induce  them.  As  five- 
eighths  of  the  waste  matter  of  the  vital  process  escapes 
through  the  skin,  why  should  not  the  closing  of  this  avenue 
occasion  that  proportion  of  the  diseases  prevalent  ?  Many 
will  think  I  attribute  more  disease  to  colds  than  really  belongs 
to  them;  but  let  such  look  at  the  universal  fact,  that  they 


COLDS    THE    CAUSE    OF    DISEASE.  18ft 

always  precede  and  induce  consumption,  that  great  mowet  of 
human  life.  Did  you  ever  know  a  consumptive  patient  whose 
attack  did  not  set  in  after  a  terrible  cold  ? — or  rather,  was  not 
that  cold  protracted  and  aggravated  ?  Colds  induce  coughs, 
as  just  explained  by  Combe,  and  that  pulmonary  irritation, 
cough,  and  final  consumption  of  the  lungs,  which  constitutes 
this  mortal  enemy  to  life,  consist  in  nothing  more  nor  less. than 
an  obstinate  cold.  I  care  not  how  predisposed,  hereditarily  or 
practically,  persons  may  be  to  consumption,  they  will  never 
have  it  till  they  take  a  "  heavy  cold.'7  Keep  clear  of  these 
precursors  and  ushers  of  this  disease,  and  I  will  insure  your 
life  against  the  disease  itself.  And  those  thus  predisposed, 
should,  in  a  special  manner,  guard  against  contracting  colds, 
and  when  taken,  break  thfem  up  as  QUICKLY  AS  POSSIBLE;  for 
their  LIFE  depends  upon  the  issue. 

Children  still  farther  illustrate  this  principle.  They  rarely 
if  ever  sicken  till  they  get  COXB^  -Gflhe  correctness  of  this 
assertion,  let  observation  be  the  test.  All  colds  do  not  make 
them  down  sick,  yet  .they  very  rarely  become  sick  till  they 
have  taken  cold.  Keep  them  from  the  latter,  and  I  will  guar- 
antee them  against  sickness.  Even  when  their  disease  ap- 
pears to  be  seated  in  the  stomach  or  other  organs,  its  origin 
will  generally  be  found  in  suppressed  perspiration,  as  shown 
in  the  extract  from  Combe.  All  cramps  and  lung  difficulties, 
are  of  course  the  direct  products  of  colds.  So  are  all  brain- 
fevers.  So  are  all  influenzas,  and  almost  all  complaints  inci- 
dent to  childhood.  Keep  the  young  from  taking  colds,  or 
break  up  all  colds  as  soon  as  contracted,  and  they  will  never 
be  sick,  nor  die  except  of  old  age. 

Rheumatic  affections  also  prove  and  illustrate  our  doctrine. 
It  is  submitted  to  all  thus  afflicted,  be  it  more  or  less,  whether 
these  pains  in  their  joints,  muscles,  and  bones  are  not  doubled 
ana  re-doubled  every  time  you  take  cold.  The  same  holds 
true  of  the  head-ache — generally  a  rheumatic  affection  of  the 
brain. 

An  anecdote.  While  lecturing  in  East  Bradford,  Mass.,  in 
1844,  a  promising  youth  took  a  most  violent  cold  which  in- 
duced  a  correspondingly  violent  fever,  and  hurried  him  into  his 


190  PERSPIRATION. 

grave.  Another  brother,  while  attending  the  funeral  of  this 
one,  also  took  a  terrible  cold,  which,  in  a  few  days,  swept 
him  also  into  eternity  !  A  sister,  exhausted  by  watching  this 
brother,  also  took  a  very  severe  cold  while  attending  his  fu- 
neral, and,  in  consequence,  was  soon  bereft  of  reason,  and 
then  attacked  with  a  scorching  fever,  of  which  she  died  in 
about  a  week.  All  three  deaths  were  distinctly  traceable  to 
colds.  Three  or  four  other  members  of  this  self-afflicted 
family  were  also  sick  simultaneously,  of  colds,  the  weather 
at  the  time  of  these  funerals  being  particularly  unfavorable. 

Reader,  traco  the  sickness  around  you  back  and  up  to  its 
cause,  and  you  will  be  surprised  to  find  colds  the  author  of 
nine  cases  in  every  ten.  I  can  remember  no  sickness  in  my 
life  not  induced  by  this  cause.  Recrall  your  own  ailings,  rmd 
see  if  this  principle  does  not  explain  their  origin. 

But  why  particularize  farther?  Do  not  these  instances^ 
cognizant  to  the  experience  of  most,  and  the  observation 
of  all,  prove  that  colds  are  the  chief  causes  of  disease  ? 
And  these  distinctions  made  by  physicians  between  different 
forms  of  fever,  and  other  diseases^  are  not  founded  in  the 
NATURE  of  such  diseases,  hut  only  different  modes  of  attack, 
and  manifestation  of  the  same  disease— the  closing  of  the 
pores. 

109.       THE    PREVENTION    OF    COLDS, 

Therefore,  becomes  as  important  as  such  colds  are  inju- 
rious. To  consumptive  subjects,  such  prevention  is  life,  as 
these  colds  are  death.  How,  then,  can  they  be  prevented  ? 

BY  KEEPING  THE  SKIN  ACTIVE.  The  system  manufactures 
a  great  amount  of  heat92.  That  heat  is  abundant  at  the  sur- 
face so  as  to  fortify  it  against  those  changes  of  temperature 
which  affect  the  skin  mainly.  Hence  the  great  accumulation 
of  blood-vessels  at  the  surface  of  the  body.  Probably  no  part 
of  the  body,  the  head  possibly  excepted,  is  as  abundantly  sup- 
plied with  blood-vessels  as  the  skin.  Hence  its  warmth.  Now 
vigorous  surface  circulation  will  keep  these  pores  so  warm  as 
to  resist  the  closing  action  of  the  external  cold.  In  such  cases 
these  atmospheric  changes  do  no  evil.  They  close  the  pores 


BATHING.  191 

only  where  the  surface  circulation  has  become  impaired. 
Keep  that  vigorous,  and  it  will  ward  off  all  colds,  extreme 
cases  of  exposure  possibly  excepted.  Whatever,  therefore, 
tends  to  promote  the  activity  of  the  skin,  thereby  fortifies  the 
system  against  colds.  The  two  means  of  promoting  such 
action,  are  the  promotion  of  circulation  in  general,  and  the 
external  application  of  friction  and  water. 

110.      BATHS,    AND    THEIR   MODES    OF   APPLICATION. 

To  say  nothing  of  the  ablution  of  the  entire  person  as  a 
means  of  cleanliness,  or  of  the  surprising  quantity  of  scurf 
brought  off  by  occasional  baths  and  friction,  and  the  conse- 
quent opening  of  the  pores,  the  habitual  practice  of  bathing 
will  be  found  effectually  to  fortify  the  system  against  colds. 
Though  constitutionally  consumptive,  and  predisposed  to  colds, 
the  author  has  not  taken  a  cold  on  the  average  in  two  years 
since  he  adopted  the  practice  of  bathing  .regularly  every  day 
or  two ;  and  all  he  has  taken,  but  one,  have  been  contracted 
after  he  had  suspended  these  baths  for  weeks  previously,  be- 
cause especially  inconvenient.  Nor  would  the  wealth  of 
Astor  compensate  for  a  discontinuance  of  this  practice,  because 
colds,  with  all  their  evils,  would  soon  follow,  and  inevitably 
usher  in  consumption,  and  thus  end  his  days.  And  any  reader 
not  accustomed  to  frequent  bathing,  would  actually  find  a 
greater  prize  in  its  judicious  application  than  if  he  should  in- 
herit the  fortune  of  all  the  Rothschilds,  because  by  removing 
diseases  and  their  causes — obstructions — as  well  as  prolong- 
ing life 2l,  it  will  promote  general  enjoyment  more  than  all 
the  wealth  of  the  world !  Nothing  would  tempt  me  to  do 
without  my  bath.  Its  habitual  use  renders  me  COLD  PROOF, 
and  keeps  both  hereditary  and  acquired  predispositions  to  dis- 
ease at  bay,  as  well  as  doubles  and  trebles  my  ability  to  en- 
dure  both  physical  and  mental  exertion.  Even  as  a  luxury 
it  is  equalled  only  by  food  and  sleep.  I  go  to  it,  not  with 
dread,  but  with  alacrity,  on  account  of  the  p  easure  it  gives 
me.  And  this  pleasure  is  the  greater  the  colder  the  weather, 
oecause  of  the  greater  re-action  and  subsequent  delightful 
giow.  Still,  it  must  be  rightly  managed,  else  it  results  in 


192  PERSPIRATION. 

evil  proportionate  to  its  good.  The  cold  bath  should  never  be 
taken  except  where  there  is  sufficient  energy  in  the  system  to 
produce  a  delightful  RE-ACTION  AND  SUBSEQUENT  GLOW — these 
sure  signs  and  concomitants  of  its  utility.  A.  Combe  re- 
marks  on  this  point  as  follows  : — 

"  For  GENERAL  use,  the  tepid  or  warm  bath  seems  to  me  much 
more  suitable  than  the  cold  bath,  especially  in  winter,  and  for  those 
who  are  not  robust  and  full  of  animal  heat.  Where  the  constitu- 
tion is  not  sufficiently  vigorous  to  secure  reaction  after  the  cold 
bath,  as  indicated  by  a  warm  glow  over  the  surface,  its  use  inevita- 
bly does  harm.  A  vast  number  of  persons  are  in  this  condition ; 
while,  on  the  contrary  there  are  few  indeed  who  did  not  derive  evi- 
dent advantage  from  the  regular  use  of  the  tepid  bath,  and  still 
fewer  who  are  hurt  by  it. 

"  Where  the  health  is  good,  and  the  bodily  powers  are  sufficiently 
vigorous,  the  cold  bath  during  summer,  and  the  shower  bath  in 
winter  may  serve  every  purpose  required  from  them.  But  it  should 
never  be  forgotten,  that. they  are  too  powerful  in  their  agency  to  be 
used  by  EVERY  ONE,  especially  in  cold  weather.  In  proportion  as 
cold  bathing  is  influential  in  the  restoration  of  health  when  judi- 
ciously used,%it  is  hurtful  when  resorted  to  without  discrimination ; 
and  invalids,  therefore,  ought  never  to  have  recourse  to  it  without 
the  sanction  of  their  professional  advisers. 

"  Even  where  cold  bathing  is  likely  to  be  of  service,  when  judi- 
ciously employed,  much  mischief  often  results  from  prolonging  the 
immersion  too  long,  or  from  resorting  to  it  when  the  vital  powers 
are  too  languid  to  admit  of  the  necessary 'reaction — before  break- 
fast for  example,  or  after  fatigue.  For  this  reason,  many  persons 
derive  much  benefit  from  bathing  early  in  the  forenoon,  who,  when 
they  bathe  in  the  morning  before  taking  any  sustenance,  do  not 
speedily  recover  their  natural  heat  and  elasticity  of  feeling. 

"For  those  who  are  not  robust,  daily  sponging  of  the  body  with 
cold  water  and  vinegar,  or  with  salt  water,  is  the  best  substitute 
for  the  cold  bath,  and  may  be  resorted  to  with  safety  and  advantage 
in  most  states  of  the  system ;  especially  when  care  is  taken  to  ex- 
cite in  the  surface,  by  subsequent  friction  with  the  flesh-brush  or 
hair- glove,  the  healthy  glow  of  reaction.  It  then  becomes  an 
excellent  preservative  from  the  effects  of  changeable  weather. 
When,  however,  a  continued  sensation  of  coldness  or  chill  is  per- 
ceptible over  the  body,  sponging  ought  not  to  be  persisted  in :  dry 
friction,  aided  by  the  tepid  bath,  is  then  greatly  preferable,  and 
often  proves  highly  serviceable  in  keeping  up  the  due  action  of  the 
skin. 

"  For  habitual  use,  the  tepid  or  warm  bath  is  certainly  the  safest 
and  most  valuable,  especially  during  the  autumn,  winter,  and  spring, 
and  for  invalids.  A  temperature  ranging  from  85°  to  98°,  according 
to  the  state  of  the  individual,  is  the  most  suitable;  and  the  duration 


BATHING.  193 

of  the  immersion  may  vary  from  fifteen  minutes  to  an  hour  or  more, 
according  to  circumstances.  As  a  general  rule,  the  water  ought  to  be 
warm  enough  to  feel  pleasant  without  giving  a  positive  sensation  of 
heat ;  the  degree  at  which  this  happens  varies  considerably  accord- 
ing to  the  constitution  and  to  the  state  of  health  at  the  time.  Some- 
times, when  the  generation  of  animal  heat  is  great,  a  bath  at  95°  will 
be  felt  disagreeably  warm  and  relaxing;  while,  at  another  time,  when 
the  animal  heat  is  produced  in  deficient  quantity,  the  same  temper- 
ature will  cause  a  chilly  sensation.  The  rule,  then,  is  to  avoid 
equally  the  positive  impressions  of  heat  and  cold,  and  to  seek  the 
agreeable  medium.  A  bath  of  the  latter  description  is  the  reverse 
of  relaxing ;  it  gives  a  cheerful  tone  and  activity  to  all  the  functions, 
and  may  be  used  eveiy  day,  or  on  alternate  days,  for  fifteen  or 
twenty  minutes,  with  much  advantage. 

"  A  person  of  sound  health  and  strength  may  take  a  bath  at  any 
time,  except  immediately  after  meals.  But  the  BEST  time  for  vale- 
tudinarians is  in  the  forenoon  or  evening,  two  or  three  hours  after 
a  moderate  meal,  when  the  system  is  invigorated  by  food,  but  not 
oppressed  by  the  labor  of  digestion.  When  the  bath  is  delayed  till 
five  or  six  hours  after  eating,  delicate  people  sometimes  become 
faint  under  its  operation,  and,  from  the  absence  of  reaction,  are 
rather  weakened  by  the  relaxation  it  ihen  induces.  As  a  general 
rule,  active  exertion  ought  to  be  avoided  for  an  hour  or  two  after 
using  the  warm  or  tepid  bath  ;  and,  unless  we  wish  to  induce  per- 
spiration, it  ought  not  to  be  taken  immediately  before  going  to  bed ; 
or  if  it  is,  it  ought  to  be  merely  tepid,  and  not  of  too  long  duration. 

"  These  rules  apply  of  course  only  to  persons  in  an  ordinary  state 
of  health.  If  organic  disease,  headache,  feverishuess,  constipation, 
or  other  ailment  exist,  bathing  ought  never  to  be  employed  without 
medical  advice.  When  the  stomach  is  disordered  by  bile,  it  also 
generally  disagrees.  But  that  it  is  a  safe  and  valuable  preservative 
of  health  in  ordinary  circumstances,  and  an  active  remedy  in  disease, 
is  most  certain.  Instead  of  being  dangerous  by  causing  liability  to 
cold,  it  is,  when  well  managed,  so  much  the  reverse,  that  the  author 
of  these  pages  has  used  it  much  and  successfully  for  the  express 
purpose  of  diminishing  such  liability,  both  in  himself  and  in  others 
in  whom  the  chest  is  delicate.  In  his  own  instance,  in  particular, 
he  is  conscious  of  having  derived  much  advantage  from  its  regular 
employment,  especially  in  the  colder  months  of  the  year,  during 
which  he  has  uniformly  found  himself  most  effectually  strengthened 
against  the  impression  of  cold,  by  repeating  the  bath  at  shorter 
intervals  than  usual. 

"  In  many  manufactories,  where  warm  water  is  always  obtainable, 
it  would  be  of  very  great  advantage  to  have  a  few  baths  erected 
for  the  use  of  the  operatives.  Not  only  would  these  be  useful  in 
promoting  health  and  cleanliness,  but  they  would,  by  their  refresh- 
ing and  soothing  influence,  diminish  the  craving  for  stimulus  which 
leads  so  many  to  the  gin-shop ;  and,  at  the  same  time,  calm  the 
irritability  of  mind  so  apt  to  be  induced  by  excessive  labor.  Where 
the  trade  is  dirty,  as  many  trades  necessarily  are,  it  is  needless  to 


194  PERSPIRATION.  ' 

say  how  conducive  to  health  and  comfort  a  tepid  bath  would  be  on 
quitting  it  for  the  day. 

"  On  the  Continent,  the  vapor  and  hot  air-baths  are  had  recourse 
to,  both  as  a  means  of  health  and  in  the  cure  of  disease,  to  a  vastly 
greater  extent  than  they  are  in  this  countiy.  Their  use  is  attended 
by  the  very  best  effects,  particularly  in  chronic  ailments,  and  where 
the  water-bath  is  felt  to  be  oppressive  by  its  weight ;  and  there  can 
be  no  question  that  their  action  is  chiefly  on  the  skin,  and  through 
its  medium  on  the  nervous  system.  As  a  means  of  determining  the 
blood  to  the  surface,  promoting  cutaneous  exhalation,  and  equalizing 
the  circulation,  they  are  second  to  no  remedy  now  in  use :  and  con- 
sequently, in  a  variety  of  affections  which  the  encouragement  of 
these  processes  is  calculated  to  relieve,  they  may  be  employed 
with  eveiy  prospect  of  advantage.  The  prevalent  fear  of  catching 
cold,  which  deters  many  from  using  the  vapor-bath,  even  more 
than  from  warm  bathing,  is  founded  on  a  false  analogy  between  its 
effects  and  those  of  profuse  perspiration  from  exercise  or  illness. 
The  latter  weakens  the  body,  and,  by  diminishing  the  power  of  re- 
action, renders  it  susceptible  of  injury  from  sudden  changes  of  tem- 
perature. But  the  effect  of  the  vapor-bath  properly  administered 
is  veiy  different.  When  not  too  warm  or  too  long  continued,  it 
increases  instead  of  exhausting  the  strength,  and,  by  exciting  the 
vital  action  of  the  skin,  gives  rise  to  a  power  of  reaction  which 
enables  it  to  resist  cold  better  than  before.  This  I  have  heard 
many  patients  remark ;  and  the  fact  is  well  exemplified  in  Russia 
and  the  north  of  Europe,  where,  in  the  depth  of  winter,  it  is  not 
uncommon  for  the  natives  to  rush  out  of  a  vapor-bath  and  roll  them- 
selves in  the  snow,  and  be  refreshed  by  doing  so ;  whereas,  were 
they  to  attempt  such  a  practice  after  severe  perspiration  from 
exercise,  they  would  inevitably  suffer.  It  is  the  previous  stimulus 
given  to  the  skin  by  the  vapor-bath  which  is  the  real  safeguard 
against  the  coldness  of  the  snow. 

"  Common  experience  affords  another  illustration  of  the  same 
principle.  If,  in  a  cold  winter  day,  we  chance  to  sit  for  some  time 
in  a  room  imperfectly  warmed,  and  feel  in  consequence  a  sensation 
of  chillness  over  the  body,  we  are  much  more  likely  to  catch  cold 
on  going  out,  than  if  we  had  been  sitting  in  a  room  comfortably 
warm.  In  the  latter  case,  the  cutaneous  circulation  and  nervous 
action  go  on  vigorously;  heat  is  freely  generated,  and  the  vital 
action- of  the  skin  is  in  its  full  force.  The  change  to  a  lower  tem- 
perature, if  accompanied  with  exercise  to  keep  up  vitality,  is  then 
folt  to  be  bracing  and  stimulating  rather  than  disagreeable.  But 
it  is  widely  different  when  the  surface  is  already  chilled  before 
going  out.  The  vitality  of  the  skin  being  diminished,  reaction 
cannot  follow  additional  exposure  ;  the  circulation  leaves  the  surface 
and  becomes  still  more  internal ;  and  if  weakness  exist  in  the  throat 
or  chest,  cold  is  the  almost  certain  result.  Many  suffer  from  ignor- 
ance of  this  principle. 

"  The  vapor-bath  is  thus  calculated  to  be  extensively  useful,  both 
as  a  preservative  and  as  a  remedial  agent.  Many  a  cold  and  many 


THE    CURE    OF   COLDS.  195 

a  rheumatic  attack  arising  from  checked  perspiration  or  long  ex. 
posure  to  the  weather,  might  be  nipped  in  the  bud  by  its  timely  use. 
In  chronic  affections,  not  only  of  the  skin  itself,  but  of  the  internal 
organs  with  which  the  skin  most  closely  sympathizes,  as  the  stomach 
and  intestines,  the  judicious  application  of  the  vapor-batli  is  pro- 
ductive of  great  relief.  Even  in  chronic  pulmonary  complaints,  it  is, 
according  to  the  continental  physicians,  not  only  safe,  but  very 
serviceable ;  particularly  in  those  affections  of  the  mucous  mem- 
brane which  resemble  consumption  in  so  many  of  their  symptoms. 
Like  all  powerful  remedies,  however,  the  vapor-bath  must  bo 
administered  with  proper  regard  to  the  condition  and  circumstances 
of  the  individual;  and  care  must  be  taken  to  have  the  feet  sufficiently 
warm  during  its  use.  If,  from  an  irregular  distribution  of  the  steam, 
the  feet  be  left  cold,  headache  and  flushing  are  almost  sure  to 
follow." 

My  own  preferences  side  unequivocally  in  favor  of  the 
HAND  bath  as  preferable  to  all  others,  because  it 'is  more 
easily  applied,  requires  much  bodily  exertion,  which  facilitates 
the  required  re-action,  and  can  be  discontinued  the  instant  a 
chilly  sensation  begins  to  supervene,  beyond  which  no  bath 
should  ever  be  continued  a  single  moment.  '  Salt,  vinegar,  and 
other  stimulants  added  to  the  water,  facilitate  this  re-action  by 
exciting  the  skin,  as  does  also  sea-bathing,  which,  under  cer- 
tain circumstances,  is  most  excellent.  But  we  dismiss  this 
subject  till  we  com.e  to  treat  of  water  as  a  remedial  agent. 

111.   THE  CURE  OF  COLDS  BY  PERSPIRATION 

Next  comes  up  for  discussion  ;  for  if  they  can  be  cured 
soon  after  having  been  contracted,  the  accumulation  of  waste 
matter  will  be  trifling,  and  therefore  only  slightly  injurious. 
How  then,  can  colds  be  cured  ? 

BY  OPENING  THE  POKES,  the  closing  of  which  caused  them. 
This  opening  can  be  affected  in  part  by  washing  and  rubbing, 
but  PERSPIRATION  forces  them  open  more  effectually  than  prob- 
ably an)'  other  means  whatever.  Indeed,  it  is  the  great  anti- 
dote of  colds  and  their  dread  array  of  consequences.  Nor  is 
it  material  what  induces  this  perspiration  -o  that  it  is  copious, 
and  does  not  eventuate  in  another  col'1  Where  the  patient 
is  able  to  exercise  sufficiently  to  ,urst  open  these  pores, 
whether  he  takes  this  exercise  or  of  doors  or  in  a  warm  or 
cold  atmosphere,  is  not  materi^y.,  so  that  he  induces  it.  In 


196  PERSPIRATION. 

.short,  get  into  a  dripping  SWEAT,  and  then  cool  off  without 
contracting  more  cold,  and  you  will  drive  it  off,  as  well  as  feel 
many  fold  better. 

Where  colds  are  taken  in  their  incipient  stages,  before  they 
have  prostrated  the  system,  the  best  means  of  breaking  them 
up,  is  to  drink  copiously  of  water,  warm  or  cold,  or  of  warm 
lemonade,  or  of  currant  jelly  and  warm  water,  or  warm  corn- 
position-tea,  which  is  excellent  to  start  perspiration,  and  then 
work  right  hard,  almost  violently,  meanwhile  pouring  down 
one  or  another  of  these  drinks  by  the  quart.  Do  not  over-do 
so  as  completely  to  exhaust,  but  so  as  to  secure  profuse  per- 
spiration. This,  together  with  the  water,  which,  if  taken  in 
quantities,  MUST  have  some  exit,  will  re-open  these  closed 
pores,  and  destroy  the  disease.  Females  who  can  wash  in  a 
warm  room,  over  the  steam  of  hot  water,  will  find  this  an  in- 
fallible recipe  for  colds.  Warm  herb-teas  will  fill  the  place 
of  water,  yet  are  no  better  in  their  effects,  and  less  liable  to 
be  taken  on  account  of  their  bitterness. 

Soaking  the  feet  in  hot  water,  and  then  toasting  them  on  re- 
tiring, meanwhile  drinking  copiously  as  above  directed,  and  then 
covering  up  extra  warm,  or  even  the  extra  drinking  and  cover- 
ing will  answer  the  same  purpose ;  yet  care  must  be  taken 
to  keep  the  extra  clothes  on  so  as  not  to  contract  a  new  cold — 
the  principal  evil  attendant  on  this  simple  and  effectual  cure. 
How  many  of  us  while  young,  cured  our  colds  thus  ?  But  I 
recommend  the  daytime.  Eat  little  or  no  breakfast,  but  drink 
copiously  of  cold  water  for  an  hour  or  two  after  rising,  and 
provided  you  can  endure  it,  exercise  vigorously,  and  then 
return  to  bed,  cover  up  warm,  and  sweat  till  your  hands  be- 
gin to  shrivel.  Sleep  if  you  can.  On  rising,  wash  all  over 
in  warm  saleratus  water,  rub  dry  and  briskly,  and  keep  in  a 
gentle  perspiration  all  day  by  exercise.  Or  eat  little  break- 
fast, and  begin  to  drink  and  exercise  about  eleven  in  the  fore- 
noon, or  even  later,  and  pursue  the  same  course,  omitting  din- 
ner, and  eat  only  a  light  supper,  or  at  least  a  light  dinner, 
and  very  light  supper,  and  retire  early,  or  as  soon  after  you 
have  done  exercise  as  possible,  so  as  not  to  renew  your  cold. 


BREAKING    UP    COLDS.  1&7 

The  warm  bath,  followed  by  friction  and  exercise,  is  also 
most  excellent,  and  will  generally  prove  efficacious.  Yet  here, 
too,  care  must  be  taken  to  guard  against  renewed  colds — not 
by  staying  in  the  house,  or  muffling  up,  but  by  EXERCISE — -the 
very  best  means  of  inducing  perspiration  in  the  world,  because 
the  most  natural.  The  wet  sheet  is  another  excellent  method, 
especially  for  those  who  are  not  able  to  exercise  sufficiently  to 
to  get  u?  the  required  perspiration  ;  yet  of  this,  and  also  of  the 
water-cure  in  their  appropriate  places.  SECURE  COPIOUS  PER- 
SPIRATION  and  you  break  up  your  cold,  besides  unloading  the 
system  of  its  obstructions  and  poisons.  Evacuating  the  bow- 
els, especially  by  injections,  will  facilitate  your  object,  yet  the 
.water  drank  will  be  likely  to  effect  this  object — not  indispen- 
sable, yet  an  aid.  Vomiting,  especially  by  drinking  warm 
water,  just  at  the  lukewarm,  sickening  temperature,  will  ren- 
der essential  service.  Hot  bricks  wrapped  in  wet  cloths,  and 
laid  at  the  feet,  are  good. 

112.       GLASS    BLOWERS 

Furnish  an  excellent  illustration  of  our  doctrine  of  routing 
colds  by  inducing  perspiration.  Obliged  to  labor  excessively 
hard,  and  around  a  furnace  so  extremely  hot  as  to  keep  the 
material  at  a  white  heat,  they  of  course  sweat  profusely.  I 
have  often  seen  all  their  clothes  wringing  wet.  Yet  the  sides  of 
the  building  are  open  to  the  wind,  else  they  could  not  endure 
the  heat  an  hour.  And  they  go  from  their  furnaces  to  their 
houses  while  thus  perspiring,  and  hence  often  take  severe 
colds  one  day,  which,  however,  they  generally  sweat  out  the 
next,  so  that  these  repeated  colds  make  but  short  stay,  and 
do  but  little  damag'e ;  simply  because  they  expel  them  by  in- 
ducing copious  perspiration.  This  simple  fact  furnishes  a 
practical  illustration  of  the  true  method  of  curing  colds,  of 
great  practical  value.  As  colds  consist  in  a  closing  of  the 
pores,  so  forcing  them  open  by  sweating  is  a  sovereign  and 
universal  cure  for  these  disease-breeders. 

Sometimes  the  required  perspiration  is  spontaneous.  Chil- 
dren often  sweat  freely  while  asleep,  awaking  only  to  call  for 
water.  This  should  be  considered  a  most  favorable  symp« 


198  REGULATION  OF  ANIMAL  HEAT. 

torn  ;  and  the  desired  water  should  be  freely  administered 
till  they  wake  up,  when  they  should  be  washed  off  in  salera- 
tus-water,  followed  by  friction  and  brisk  play,  so  as  to  keep 
it  up.  Yet  care  should  be  taken  not  to  contract  additional 
cold. 

In  fine,  to  break  up  colds,  START  THE  SWEAT,  by  what 
means  it  matters  little,  so  that  it  is  copious,  protracted,  and  not 
followed  by  more  cold. 


SECTION  IV. 

THE  REGULATION  OF  THE  TEMPERATURE  BY  FIRE  AND  CLOTHING 

THEIR  KINDS  AND  AMOUNTS.  r"r. 

113.       COOLING    EFFECTS    OF    PERSPIRATION. 

PERSPIRATION,  besides  thus  unloading  the  system  of  disease, 
also  serves  to  REGULATE  the  temperature  of  the  body.  The 
necessity  of  uniformity  of  temperature — neither  too  nigh  nor 
too  low — has  already  been  explained90;  as  has  also  the  means 
by  which  it  is  generated.  But  it  at  times  SUPERABOUNDS. 
When  the  system  is  full  of  carbon,  if  we  exercise  vigorously, 
so  as  to  breathe  freely  and  thereby  introduce  great  quantities 
of  oxygen  into  the  system,  we  of  course  manufacture  an  undue 
supply  especially  in  warm  weather,  when  heat  does  not  pass 
off  readily.  Now  this  extra  heat  must  be  evacuated,  else  it 
will  melt  the  fat  in  the  system,  and  relax  and  prostrate.  This 
important  evacuation  of  the  surplus  warmth  is  effected  by 
perspiration  as  follows.  All  bodies  absorb  heat  when  passing 
from  a  dense  medium  to  one  that  is  more  rare.  Thus  water, 
in  passing  into  steam,  takes  up  a  great  amount  of  heat,  which 
it  again  gives  off  in  returning  back  to  water,  on  the  well  known 
chemical  principle  that  all  bodies  give  off  heat  when  passing 
from  a  rarer  medium  to  a  denser.  Here,  again,  water  becomes 
a  porter.  An  excess  of  heat  aids  the  conversion  of  water  into 
steam,  which  then  takes  up  this  surplus  heat,  carries  it  out  of 
the  system,  and  gives  it  off  again  while  condensing  back  to 


EVILS   OF    BEING    TOO    COLD.  199 

water — a  self-acting  and  most  efficacious  arrangement  for 
effecting  an  indispensable  end. 

This  explains  why  it  is  that  men  can  remain  in  ovens  heated 
hot  enough  to  cook  meat,  and  long  enough  to  bake  it,  without 
destroying  life.  They  SWEAT  OUT  the  surplus  heat,  or  else 
their  own  flesh  would  also  bake. 

But  sometimes  the  system  does  not  generate  sufficient  heat. 
This  scarcity  must  be  made  up  by  some  means  or  we  must 
die 93.  This  brings  up  for  consideration 

114.      THE    DEFICIENCY  OF   ANIMAL    HEAT. 

The  following  letter  to  the  author  shows  some  of  the  con- 
sequences of  a  sparse  supply  of  heat. 

"John  Clark,  a  native  of  Connecticut,  born  more  than  a  century 
ago,  was  peculiarly  affected  by  cold  weather.  In  the  cool  morn- 
higs  of  nearly  every  month  in  the  year,  his  hands  would  become 
benumbed  and  almost  entirely  useless,  his  tongue  stiffened  so  that 
he  could  scarcely  articulate,  the  muscles  of  his  face  contracted  and 
stiffened,  and  one  or  both  eyes  closed  in  a  very  peculiar  manner. 
This  infirmity  was  hereditary." — Phrenological  Journal,  1846,  p. 
131. 

This  was  undoubtedly  owing  to  defective  lungs,  and  a 
consequent  want  of  oxygen  in  the  system.  Or  there  might 
have  been  some  defect  in  his  digestion,  by  which  a  due  supply 
of  carbon  was  not  extracted  from  his  food.  Many  others  are 
also  troubled  with  being  habitually  cold,  even  in  summer. 
This  is  the  case  with  the  author,  though  he  is  becoming  less  so 
yearly.  Consumptive  parents,  and  all  predisposed  to  this  dis- 
ease, also  feel  cold  or  chilly,  and  have  cold  hands  and  feet, 
and  perhaps  what  is  called  goose-flesh  on  the  skin.  How  can 
this  be  remedied  ? 

First,  and  primarily,  by  ascertaining  and  removing  its  cause, 
\\hich  will  almost  always  be  found  in  deficiency  of  breath, 
occasioned  by  small  lungs,  or  confinement,  or  a  want  of  suf- 
ficient exercise  to  promote  respiration.  When  this  is  the 
cause,  the  patient  may  easily  perceive  it  in  the  fact  that  all 
additions  to  his  breathing  add  to  his  warmth.  And  the  remedy 
is  plain.  He  must  BREATHE  MORE.  Nor  ca-n  he  be  comforta- 
bly warm  without  it.  Two  other  means  are  also  resorted  to 


200  KEGULiriON  OF  ANIMAL  HEAT. 

in  civic  life  to  secure  the  required   temperature.      One  of 
these  is 

115.      FIRE — EVILS   OP   ITS    EXCESS. 

That  fire  is  essential  to  human  health  and  comfort  is  estab- 
lished by  the  ample  provision  for  it  found  in  nature.  What 
she  supplies,  she  intends  man  shall  use.  Besides  being  indis- 
pensable in  many  of  the  arts,  as  in  smelting  and  casting  metals, 
etc.,  no  one  will  doubt  that  fire  is  useful  as  a  means  of  animal 
warmth.  When  the  body  is  perfectly  healthy,  vigorous  exer- 
cise will  probably  supply  all  the  heat  required  in  the  coldest 
cf  weather.  Yet  we  often  require  to  apply  our  minds  in  a 
sitting  posture,  as  in  writing,  reading,  listening  to  speakers, 
when  there  is  not  sufficient  action  to  secure  this  heat,  and 
when,  therefore,  fire  is  both  comfortable  and  indispensable. 
In  cases  of  exhaustion,  sickness,  infancy,  etc.,  fire  is  necessary. 
But  why  argue  the  utility  of  fire  ?  As  well  attempt  to  prove 
that  water  is  beneficial. 

Still,  men  rely  far  too  much  on  external  heat,  and  far  too 
little  on  internal.  Though  we  require  fire,  yet  this  alone  can 
never  keep  us  sufficiently  warm.  How  hot,  think  you,  must 
be  the  atmosphere  to  keep  the  body,  inside  as  well  as  out,  at 
the  temperature  of  98°  ?  Hot  enough  to  burn  the  skin  to  a 
crisp.  Try  the  experiment  on  a  corpse.  Fire  is  utterly 
powerless  to  keep  us  duly  warm.  Most  of  our  heat,  indeed 
all  of  it,  must  be  generated  WITHIN  us.  The  use  of  fire  is  to 
keep  us  warm  by  retarding  the  escape  of  internal  heat,  not 
to  actually  infuse  external  heat  into  us.  Those  who  cannot 
keep  themselves  warm  by  the  process  already  described92, 
can  never  keep  warm  at  all ;  because  in  and  by  the  very  act  of 
warming  a  room,  you  prevent  the  manufacture  of  internal  heat 
by  rarefying  the  air,  and,  when  the  fire  is  in  the  room  heated, 
by  burning  out  much  of  its  oxygen,  so  that  the  lungs  cannot 
carry  enough  to  the  blood  to  support  the  required  internal 
combustion 95.  External  heat,  therefore,  so  far  from  keeping 
us  warm,  actually  prevents  that  warmth  in  the  ratio  of  its 
intensity  That  is,  the  warmer  we  keep  our  rooms,  the  colder 
we  must  keep  ourselves.  All  this,  besides  the  smoke  anc 


FIRE — ITS    EXCESS    INJURIOUS.  201 

noxious  gases  necessarily  consequent  on  burning  fuel,  espe- 
cially coal. 

To  put  this  matter  on  the  reader's  own  experience.  How 
many  times  in  your  lives,  in  weather  so  cold  that  you  could 
not  keep  yourself  warm  in-doors,  when  compelled  to  drive  out 
into  the  cold,  -have  you  so  accelerated  circulation  and  per- 
spiration as  in  a  few  minutes  to  be  quite  warm- enough,  though 
just  before  chilly  by  a  hot  fire  ?  And  this  natural  warmth  is 
so  much  more  delightful  than  artificial  heat.  Out  of  doors  is 
the  place  to  keep  thoroughly  warm  in  cold  weather. 

You  sedentaries  know  no  more  about  the  back-woodsman's 
table  luxuries,  than  he  about  your  "  city  fixins,"  and  the  way  he 
can  beat  you  keeping  warm  in  cold  weather,  notwithstanding 
your  hard  coal  and  air-tight  stoves,  can  be  known  only  by 
trying.  If  I  were  again  young,  and  my  constitution  unim- 
paired, I  would  remain  where  there  was  fire  no  more  than 
obliged  to,  and  would  never  rely  on  it  to  warm  my  feet,  or 
hands,  but  only  on  natural  warmth.  Nor  would  I  accustom 
myself  to  mittens,  except  on  extra  occasions. 

Nor  can  those  who  generally  occupy  warm  apartments 
well  imagine  how  much  more  brisk,  lively,  buoyant,  intense, 
and  happy  the  feelings  are,  and  how  much  more  clear  ana 
vigorous  all  the  intellectual  operations,  while  one  is  kept  warm 
by  exercise  in  a  cold  day,  than  by  sitting  in  a  hot  room ;  nor 
how  lax  and  listless,  in  comparison,  are  we  rendered  by  arti- 
ficial heat.  Abundance  of  exercise,  respiration,  and  good  food, 
is  the  great  receipt  for  keeping  comfortable  in  cold  weather. 

The  evils  consequent  on  staying  perpetually  within  doors 
in  cold  weather,  and  in  hot  rooms,  are  exposed  too  forcibly  by 
our  subject  to  require  enlargement.  Such  can  obtain  only  a 
small  supply  of  oxygen,  first,  because  the  air  they  breathe  ia 
so  rarefied  by  heat  that  a  given  bulk  contains  but  little; 
secondly,  because  the  fire  has  burnt  out  much  of  that  little, 
thirdly,  because  they  have  breathed  what  little  air  there  ia 
over  and  over  again,  and  thus  loaded  it  with  carbonic  acid 
gas,  and  because  they  exercise  so  little  that  they  secure  but 
little  action  in  their  lungs.  Such  live  slowly,  yet  are  in- 
curring disease. 


202  REGULATION  OF  ANIMAL  HEAT. 

Fire  also  creates  carbonic  acid  gas  e3,  which  is  of  course 
inhaled  into  the  lungs.  Hence,  those  who  occupy  heated 
rooms,  instead  of  carrying  off  the  surplus  already  in  the  sys- 
tem, even  take  on  additional  supplies,  especially  if  the  fire  is 
made  of  coal,  and  hence  the  blue  veins  aad  languid  feelings 
of  those  who  keep  themselves  housed  up  in  winter. 

116.       DIFFERENT    KINDS    OF    FUEL,  STOVES,    ETC., 

Are  thus  brought  up  for  consideration.  And  here  I  protest 
against  air-tight  stoves  in  sitting  rooms,  because  they  prevent 
a  renewal  of  the  air  by  circulation,  and  thus  effectually  shut 
out  the  oxygen.  Still  air-tights  are  admissible  in  the  kitchen, 
where  fresh  air  is  introduced  by  a  frequent  opening  and 
shutting  of  doors.  If  you  must  be  by  a  fire,  at  least  have  a 
draft. 

Hence,  none  of  these  close  stoves  are  the  things  for  health. 
They  all  paralyze  our  mental  and  physical  energies  while  life 
lasts,  and  also  hasten  its  termination.  Give  me  the  old-fash- 
ioned fire-place,  or  an  open  Franklin,  or  else  a  new  kind  of 
stove  made  wholly  of  brick  called  the  Russian  stove,-  which, 
for  warming  sitting-rooms,  is  probably  superior  to  any  other 
in  use,  as  it  certainly  is  much  less  expensive  in  construction, 
and  more  economical  in  fuel.  I  never  imagined  till  I  used  it, 
how  much  heat  a  little  wood  gives  out.  It  also  makes  a  re- 
markably  even  heat. 

117.       FIRE    NECESSARY    WHEN    THE    CIRCULATION    IS    WEAK. 

Let  not  the  preceding  remarks,  be  construed  to  mean  that 
we  had  better  remain  cold  than  warm  ourselves  by  fire.  Heat 
must  be  had  at  some  rate 90.  Only  a  slight  reduction  of 
temperature  induces  those  colds  just  shown  to  be  so  fatal,  and 
also  chills  the  blood,  intercepts  circulation,  and  would  soon 
occasion  death.  Infinitely  better  artificial  heat  than  cold. 
Yet  t  °n  in  sickness,  when  the  circulation  is  low,  better  pro- 
voke a^  "nuch  natural  heat  by  friction  and  clothing  and  rely 
as  little  L  fire  as  possible.  Invalids,  of  all  others,  require 
oxygen,  w,  h  artificial  heat  always  and  necessarily  reduces. 
I  pity  those  \\  are  obliged  to  resort  to  fire  for  warmth.  They 


QUANTITY    OF    CLOTHING    REQUISITE.  203 

may  live  along  from  ha:id  to  mouth  as  to  health,  yet  can  never 
know  the  real  luxury  of  a  comfortable  temperature.  Such 
should  hy  all  means  practice  those  directions  for  enhancing 
the  circulation  to  be  given  hereafter. 

118.       CLOTHES,    AND    THEIR    NECESSITY. 

That  man  is  constituted  to  wearsome  kind  of  external  cover- 
ing, cannot  for  a  moment  be  questioned.  Otherwise,  he  would 
have  been  furnished  with  a  heavy  coating,  like  what  grows 
on  animals.  Man  was  designed  to  inhabit  the  whole  earth, 
the  frozen  regions  of  the  north  and  south  included ;  where, 
without  some  external  protection  against  the  extreme  rigor  of 
winter  he  must  inevitably  freeze  to  death.  Such  protection, 
though  it  does  not  generate  heat,  retards  its  escape,  and  thus 
aids  in  that  indispensable  process  of  heating  the  body 90. 
And  by  varying  the  quantity  of  clothing  as  the  weather  changes, 
we  can  greatly  4acilitajte  that  uniformity  of  temperature  so 
indispensable.  This  introduces  for  consideration  the 

119.       QUANTITY    OF    CLOTHING    REQUISITE. 

Though  clothing  is  thus  necessary,  yet  by  far  too  much  is 
now  worn.  The  Indian,  even  in  colder  latitudes  than  ours, 
keeps  perfectly  comfortable  in  the  coldest  weather,  with  only 
his  blanket  thrown  loosely  around  his  shoulders — but  one 
thickness,  and  much  of  his  body  exposed  directly  to  the  cold. 
Yet  he  is  far  more  comfortable  with  this  sparse  supply,  than 
we  with  a  quarter  of  a  score  of  thicknesses,  and  cotton  batting 
to  boot.  We  need  clothing,  yet  should  rely  upon  it  only  as  a 
partial  regulator  of  heat,  not  as  our  principal  warming  agent. 
Clothes,  by  retarding  the  escape  of  heat,  cause  us  to  require 
less  food  and  breath,  that  is,  compensate  for  the  latter. 
Hence,  those  who  cannot  get  enough  to  eat,  should  dress  extra 
warm,  while  those  who  can  eat,  should  dress  light.  Extra, 
clothing  also  relaxes  the  skin,  and  prevents  the  generation  of 
animal  heat,  and  this  leaves  the  system  colder  instead  of 
warmer.  If  I  were  again  young  and  robust,  I  should  habit- 
uate  myself  to  but  little  clothing,  even  in  winter,  and  am 
wearing  less  and  less  every  winter — thus  relying  for  warmth 


204  REGULATION    OF    ANIMAL    HEAT. 

more  on  nature  and  less  on  art.  Yet  I  wtfuld  not  change  too 
suddenly.  Better  too  much,  than  too  little.  Keep  warm  we 
must ;  and  in  leaving  off  clothing  I  would  augment  the  internal 
manufacture  of  heat  by  increased  exercise  and  breathing. 

As  clothing  is  worn  partly  to  regulate  the  temperature,  its 
quantity  of  course  requires  to  be  greater  in  cold  weather  than 
warm.  Yet  I  protest  against  this  varying  its  quantity  with 
every  variation  of  the  weather.  Nature  has  rendered  this  un- 
necessary by  a  provision  for  enhancing  the  internal  heat  in 
the  exact  ratio  of  the  external  cold  95.  This  alone  shows  that 
we  should  rely  on  nature's  provision  for  warmth,  instead  of  on 
art — should  breathe  and  eat  more  as  the  weather  becomes 
colder,  instead  of  dress  warmer. 

Yet  invalids,  and  those  whose  circulation  is  defective,  may 
require  such  variation.  This  pernicious  habit  of  civic  life 
in  relying  so  much  on  clothes,  however,  modifies  our  advice. 
As  most  of  us  now  are,  they  benefit,  yet  we  should  diminish 
its  necessity  by  enhancing  the  internal  heat. 

120.       THE    CLOTHING    OF    CHILDREN. 

Few  errors  are  greater  than  that  prevailing  custom  of 
wrapping  babes  up  in  blanket  after  blanket  as  a  protection 
against  eeld.  From  the  first  they  are  literally  smothered 
with  clothing.  Besides  keeping  the  nursery  quite  too  warm, 
the  young  stranger  must  have  on  several  thicknesses  of  its 
own  clothes,  and  then  be  covered  up  most  of  the  time  under 
several  thicknesses  of  bed-clothes  with  only  a  small  breathing- 
hole  left.  It  is  just  a»  you  habituate  them,  with  this  difference, 
that  shutting  in  the  animal  heat  thus,  relaxes  the  skin  and 
paves  the  way  for  those  colds  seen  to  be  so  injurious108. 
Extra  clothing  promotes  colds  instead  of  preventing  them.  I 
would  not  have  the-m  cold ;  yet  of  this,  there  is  little  danger. 
That  same  self-acting  regulator  of  heat  already  seen  to  exist 
in  adults  **,  exists  also  in  them.  Rely  on  this,  and  do  not 
engender  disease  by  extra  clothing.  They  need  more  clothing 
than  adults,  because  animal  heat  is  at  its  minimum  at  birth, 
and  should  not  be  carried  out  much,  yet  they  are  often  well 
nigh  ruined  by  being  over-dressed. 


CHANGE    OF   RAIMENT.  205 

After  children  have  become  three  years  olJ,  they  generate 
animal  heat  very  rapidly,  if  allowed  to  play,  and  therefore 
require  but  little  clothing.  Give  them  the  liberty  of  the  yard, 
and  I'll  risk  their  getting  cold,  unless  they  have  previously 
been  nursed  to  death.  Mothers,  be  assured  that  you  are  by 
far  too  tender  of  your  children  in  this  respect — that  you 
almost  kill  them — and  often  quite — by  extra  dressing.  And 
this  muffling  up  boys  with  comforts  around  their  necks,  in 
addition  to  neck  wrappers,  caps  pulled  down  tight  around 
their  ears,  warm  mittens,  warm  over-clothesx  a  cart-load  of  bed- 
clothes, and  the  like,  is  consummate  folly  When  boys  are 
running  out  and  in,  .they  will  keep  warm  without  all  this  fuss, 
and  doubly  so  when  they  are  walking114.  But  we  shall 
discuss  this  whole  subject  of  children's  dress  in  our  proposed 
work  on  "Maternity." 

121.       CHANGE   OE    RAIMENT. 


Whether  we  should  Increase 'and  diminish  our  clothing 
according  to  the  temperature  oT  the  weather,  we  should 
change  it  often  from  motives  of  HEALTH  AND  CLEANLINESS. 
Since  perspiration  brings  out  a  great  amount  of  corrupt  and 
poisonous  matter  through  the  skin 106,  most  of  which  is  absorbed 
by  the  under  clothes,  of  course  they  should  be  changed  and 
cleansed  frequently.  The  necessity  of  this  will  be  rendered 
apparent  by  the  following  experiment.  Take  off  and  roll  up 
your  under  garment,  and  wash  your  body,  and  the  unpleasant 
sensations  consequent  on  putting  it  on  again,  show  how  much 
corruption  it  has  imbibed,  and  how  repugnant  it  is  to  a  clean 
skin.  The  same  sensations  are  experienced  when  you  return 
to  bed  after  having  been  up  a  few  minutes.  This  also  shows 
the  importance  of  airing  and  frequently  changing  the  bed- 
clothes.  Nor  should  we  sleep  in  the  undergarments  worn 
day-times. 

Children's  under  clothes,  in  particular,  should  be  changed 
every  day  or  two,  and  also  every  night,  because  they  perspire 
more  copiously  even  than  adults. 
18 


206  REGULATION  OF  ANIMAL  HEAT. 

122.       THE    QUALITY    OF    CLOTHING,  FLANNELS,    SILKS. 

That,  considering  the  weak  state  of  the  skin  generally 
in  civic  life,  flannel  under  garments  for  cold  weather  may  be 
advisable,  is  admitted ;  yet,  in  cases  where  the  circulation 
is  vigorous,  its  utility  is  doubtful.  My  practice  is  to  postpone 
putting  it  on  later  and  later  every  fall,  and  to  discontinue  its 
use  earlier  and  earlier  every  spring.  It  confines  the  corrupt 
matter,  transmitted  through  the  skin,  too  closely  around  the 
body1'2  j  lhat  same  principle  which  retains  the  heat  also  re- 
taining the  poisonous  effluvia.  Hence  it  should  be  changed 
and  washed  often,  as  well  as  aired  at  night.  This  wearing 
flannels  a  week  or  ten  days  without  washing,  is  doubly  pre- 
nicious.  Canton  flannel  I  think  preferable. 

Silk  is  highly  extolled  for  under  garments.  I  have  worn  it 
with  comfort  if  not  with  profit.  Yet,  like  flannel,  it  retains 
the  perspiration  and  effluvia  of  the  body.  My  own  convictions 
favor  cotton  as  furnishing  the  best  material  for  under  and 
summer  clothing.  •»*  ,— ' 

123.      HEAD    AND    NECK    ATTIRE. THE    BEARD. 

That  nature  designed  us  to  wear  something  on  the  head,  at 
least  as  a  bandage  to  keep  the  hair  in  place,  will  not  be  doubted, 
but  has  she  not  already  dressed  it  in  a  warm  and  beautiful 
garment  of  hair — one  abundantly  sufficient  to  secure  the 
required  warmth,  at  the  same  time  allowing  perspiration  to 
escape  freely  ?  This,  hats  and  caps  prevent,  and  are,  there- 
fore, objectionable.  The  turban  is  undoubtedly  preferable. 
Yet  I  for  one  prefer  to  go  bareheaded  especially  in  overcast 
weather.  Even  rain  up®n  it  is  particularly  agreeable,  per- 
haps on  account  of  its  preternatural  heat.  Be  it  remembered 
that  Whatever  oppresses  the  head  thereby  blunts  thought  and 
stifles  feeling. 

The  mode  of  dressing  the  neck  is  scarcely  less  important. 
A  tight  neck  dress  is  highly  injurious,  because  it  retards  the 
flow  of  blood  to  and  from  the  head.  This  perpetual  strangula- 
tion I  cannot  endure.  I  never  wear  stocks,  and  regard  them 
as  a  great  evil.  Anything  but  being  choked.  At  home  I 
wear  no  stock  or  neck-kerchief,  and  should  never  do  so 


HANIS   AND    ARMS.  207 

abroad  if  I  could  always  explain  my  motives  for  the  omission. 
Tight  neck  dresses  also  cause  bronchital  affections. 

This  confinement  of  the  neck  also  intercepts  the  escape 
of  the  perspiration  and  effluvia  which  'the  heat  of  the  body 
causes  to  rise,  but  which  any  bandage  around  the  neck  hedges 
in,  and  retains  around  the  person  and  in  the  clothes  only  to 
vitiate  and  disease.  The  Byronic  fashion  of  dressing  the 
neck  is  preferable  to  all  others.  The  true  plan  ought  to  be  to 
allow  the  beard  to  grow  and  .thus  protect  the  neck  and 
chest.  This  appendage  was  not  created  for  naught,  and 
cannot  be  cut  off  with  impunity. 

That  a  close  neck  dress  is  not  'required  on  the  score  of 
warmth,  is  evinced  by  the  open  mode  of  dressing  the  female 
neck.  If  woman  can  keep  warm  without  choking  up  hf~ 
neck  with  tight  bandages,  surely  robust  man  can. 

124.       THE    HANDS    AND  ARMS. 

The  hands  should  be  kept  warm,  yet  this  can  be  done 
without  mittens- — and  in  general  better  without  than  with: 
Rely  on  natural  heat  more,  and  artificial  less.  Put  them  on  late 
in  the  fall,  and  only  in  extreme  cases,  and  when  they  become 
cold,  whip  them  till  they  thaw  out.  And  this  wearing  gloves 
in  summer  is  perfectly  ridiculous.  As  though  human-  fabrics 
were  more  beautiful  than  Divine  !  As  though  hands  were 
homely,  and  gloves  necessary  to  hide  their  deformity  !  This  is 
doubly  true  of  female  hands.  To  encase  them  in  gloves  is  to 
hide  their  beauty.  I  should  feel  ashamed  to  acknowledge, 
practically,  that  mine  were  too  homely  to  be  seen.  This 
fashion  is  scarcely  less  intrinsically  ridiculous  than  that  of 
wearing  the  hair  over  the  ears.  How  extra  handsome  heads 
without  ears,  or  with  them  hid  from  vision !  You  sickly  ex- 
quisites may  cover  up  hands  and  ears  too  if  you  like — may 
hide  all  your  beauties,  or  supplant  them  by  deformities — but 
to  my  taste,  nature  is  infinitely  more  beautiful  than  art. 

UNCOVERED  ARMS,  by  allowing  the  free  escape  of  waste 
matter,  greatly  promote  comfort  and  health.  In  his  younger 
days,  the  author  wore  his  sleeves  rolled  up  in  warm  weather, 
and  noticed  that  this  custom  greatly  promoted  his  comfort. 


208  REGULATION  OF  ANIMAL  HEAT. 

Franklin  describes  his  "air  bath"  as  a  great  luxury.  The 
free  access  of  the  air  to  the  skin  is  pre-eminently  beneficial, 
and  the  more  surface  thus  exposed  compatible  with  warmth  the 
better. 

125.       WARM    FEET. 

The  proper  regimen  for  these  convenient  articles  of  service 
is  very  important.  And  the  more  so,  because  whatever  injury 
they  sustain  is  speedily  diffused  throughout  the  system.  Cold 
or  wet  feet  are  much  more  prolific  of  colds  and  their  conse- 
quences 108  than  almost  any  other  cause  ;  while  keeping  them 
warm  and  healthy  generally  protects  the  system  from  disease. 
That  old  saw — "  Keep  the  head  cool  and  feet  warm,"  is  full  of 
practical  wisdom.  In  fact,  cold  feet  induce  headache  by  a 
partial  congestion  of  the  brain,  nor  is  there  a  greater  cure  for 
headache  than  rubbing,  washing,  soaking,  or  toasting  the  feet, 
because  they  draw  off  that  extra  rush  of  blood  to  the  head 
which  caused  it  to  ache. 

To  secure  due  warmth  in  the  feet,  WASH  AND  RUB  THEM 
OFTEN.  Few  things  are  more  promotive  of  health  than  the 
daily  ablution  of  the  feet.  It  will  nearly  double  the  health 
of  every  reader  who  will  practice  it,  as  well  as  unspeakably 
enhance  his  serenity  of  mind.  Jefferson  attributed  his  uni- 
form health,  even  in  advanced  life,  more  to  this  one  practice 
than  to  any  other.  Nor  does  running  in  the  water  in  summer 
do  children  the  damage  apprehended.  Let  every  child  bo 
brought  up  to  wash  the  feet,  every  night  on  retiring,  in  cold  wa- 
ter. Than  the  prevailing  idea  that  cold  water  applied  to  the  feet 
is  injurious,  nothing  is  more  erroneous  or  foolish.  Is  it  poison- 
ous ?  Nor  are  wet  feet,  if  WARM,  the  precursors  of  the  winding 
sheet,  though  cold  wet  feet  often  breed  disease.  Keep  up  the 
circulation  in  them,  and  they  may  be  wet  half  the  time  with- 
out injury !  The  great  evil  is  not  in  wet,  but  COLD  feet,  of 
which  the  judicious  application  ©f  cold  water  is  the  greatest 
known  preventive. 

The  proper  dressing  of  the  feet  so  as  to  secure  the  required 
warmth,  then,  becomes  a  matter  of  great  importance.  Nor 
should  reliance  for  keeping  them  warm  be  placed  on  shoes. 


WARM    FEET.  209 

stockings,  and  fires.  The  principles  of  fires  and  dress  already 
applied  to  the  body  apply  equally  to  the  feet.  Almost  exclu 
sive  reliance  should  be  placed  on  vigorous  CIRCULATION,  as  se- 
cured  by  exercise  and  washing,  not  on  stockings,  boots,  and 
over-shoes.  In  fact,  the  latter  generally  IMPAIR  circulation, 
and  thus  induce  coldness  of  the  feet  instead  of  warmth.  In 
general,  the  lighter  dressed  the  warmer,  provided  they  have 
sufficient  EXERCISE. 

Stockings  are  decidedly  injurious  especially  on  young  chil- 
dren. They  need  mittens  quite  as  much.  Stockings  retain 
the  perspiration,  and  this  invites  cold.  Experiment  will 
satisfy  all  who  try  it,  that  feet  keep  warmer  without  than  with 
them.  Try  it,  and  you  will  be  surprised  at  the  result.  A 
friend  of  mine  was  wakened  early  one  cold  winter  morning, 
in  1844,  to  take  some  travelling  conveyance  which  could 
not  wait,  and  unable  to  find  both  his  stockings,  started  off  with 
but  one,  intending  to  get  a  pair  at  the  first  stopping-place. 
But,  finding  the  unstockinged  foot  the  warmest,  he  postponed 
several  days,  when,  still  finding  it  the  warmest,  he  discontinued 
the  use  of  the  other,  and  has  done  so  ever  since,  and  says 
his  feet  are  much  warmer  for  it.  All  similar  trials  that  have 
come  to  the  author's  knowledge  have  resulted  similarly.  Yet 
it  is  recommended  that  the  experiment  be  commenced  in  mid- 
summer, and  that  the  feet  be  washed  daily.  These  views 
may  seem  strange,  because  contrary  to  custom ;  but  try 
before  you  condemn. 

Heating  the  feet  with  brick,  stones,  and  the  like,  is  also  in- 
jurious. Warm  them  by  walking,  stamping,  and  the  like,  in- 
stead. And  in  riding,  by  far  the  best  plan  of  warming  them 
is  to  get  out  and  walk  or  run. 

GOING  BAREFOOT  in  summer  is  not,  then,  so  very  injurious 
to  children.  All  love  it  dearly,  and  this  is  nature's  warrant 
for  its  utility1.  The  soles  of  their  feet  are  furnished  from 
birth  with  a  thick  epidermis,  which  going  barefoot  renders 
very  thick  and  tough,  and  abundantly  protects  them  from 
injury,  of  which  all  poor  and  barefoot  subjects  are  examples. 
Nor  will  it  give  them  cold,  but  it  will  prevent  sickness  by 
promoting  health  and  circulation  in  the  feet. 


210  NECESSITY    FOR    SLEEP. 

"  But  how  they  look  barefoot  I"  exclaim  fastidious  mothers. 
What  was  said  of  covering  the  hands  124  applies  equally  to 
dressing  the  feet.  If  bare  feet  were  fashionable,  they  would 
look  no  worse  than  bare  faces  or  hands.  The  Persians  esteem 
uncovered  faces  as  ugly  looking  as  we  do  uncovered  feet; 
whereas  feet  are  quite  ornamental  as  well  as  useful,  and  chil- 
dren look  almost  as  bad  with  them  muffled  up  in  summer  as 
t.\dies  do  with  covered  ears.  Still,  "  every  one  to  his  liking." 

"  But  unconfined  feet  grow  large,  broad,  and  homely,"  it  is 
farther  objected.  Then  do  go  to  China  and  done  with  it.  As 
though  cramping  the  feet,  and  preventing  their  natural  develop- 
ment, increases  their  beauty  !  As  though  you  could  improve 
on  nature,  and  correct  her  deformities  by  art  f  My  philosophy 
is  t-j  let  nature  "have  her  perfect  work,"  yet  you  who  choose 
may  warp  and  cramp  her  to  your  liking. 


SECTION   V. 

DLEEP  —ITS    NECESSITY,    FUNCTION,    DURATION,    SEASON,    PROMO- 
TION,   POSTURES,    AND    APARTMENTS. 

126.       ITS    NECESSITY,    AND    OFFICK. 

ALL  that  lives  must  sleep.  Even  the  entire  vegetable  king- 
dom sleeps  profoundly  in  winter  to  wake  up  with  renewed 
vigor  on  the  opening  of  spring.  All  animal  life,  from  snail  to 
man,  must  also  rest  or  die.  Nature  COMPELS  it,  nor  can  any 
human  will  or  effort  forego  it.  Nor  can  we  be  better  em- 
ployed than  when  thus  renewing  our  vital  energies.* 

This  •imperious  demand  for  sleep  indicates  a  function  ab- 
solutely indispensable  to  the  continuance  of  life.  What  that 
office  is,  science  has  not  yet  told  us  for  certain,  yet,  in  all 

probability,  it  secures  ASSIMILATION  or  the  appropriation  of  the 

• 

*  I  saw  a  Scotchman  in.  Boston,  in  1843,  who  claimed,  no  doubt  sin- 
cerely, to  have  slept  but  once  in  seven  years,  yet  I  saw  him  assume  au 
easy  posture,  close  his  eyes,  nod,  and  appear  for  all  the  world  just  aa 
others  do  when  they  doze. 


DURATION    OF    SLEEP.  211 

tiateriate  of  life,  in  'heir  respective  formations.  This  view  is 
supported  by  the  fact  that  we  grow  larger  during  sleep,  and 
taller  by  about  half  an  inch,  whereas  we  grow  that  much 
shorter  during  the  day.  The  fact  that  growing  children  sleep 
very  soundly  and  a  great  deal,  mature  age  less,  and  old  age 
still  less — their  sleep  not  being  sound — also  confirms  this 
view.  But,  be  its  office  what  it  may,  its  necessity  is  absolute. 

127.       AMOUNT    AND    DURATION    OF    SLEEP. 

This  requisition  for  slelepof  course  requires  sleep  enough. 
Its  deficiency  is  scarcely  less  injurious  than  deficiency  of  food. 
Yet  we  can  over  sleep  as  well  as  over  eat  and  exercise.  The 
due  medium  is  the  great  desideratum.  Physiologists  differ  as  to 
the  length  of  time  required,  and  well  they  may,  because  dif- 
ferent persons  require  different  lengths,  according  to  circum- 
stances. Yet  there  is  a  right  length,  nor  is  its  determination 
difficult. 

The  time  spent  in  sleep  furnishes  no  criterion  of  its  amount, 
because  some  sleep  more  in  an  hour  than  others  in  a  night. 
Some  may  doze  away  half  their  time,  yet  be  starved  for  rest, 
while  others  sleep  abundantly  in  four  or  five  hours — all  de- 
pending on  its  soundness  and  previous  fatigue. 

While  the  constitution  remains  unimpaired,  the  sleep  is 
sound  and  refreshing,  so  that  five  or  six  hours  in  the  twentv- 
four  are  probably  sufficient,  yet  broken  constitutions  require 
eight,  or  even  more.  Over-eating*  also  requires  additional 
sleep,  as  does  also  excessive  toil  of  any  kind,  of  which  all 
are  experimental  witnesses.  All  disorders  of  the  stomach  and 
nervous  system  also  require  additional  time  for  sleep,  because 
then  it  is  less  refreshing.  Hence,  different  persons  require  to 
sleep  different  lengths  of  time,  and  even  the  same  person  un- 
der different  circumstances.  Exceedingly  active  persons — 
those  who,  when  awake,  are  wide  awake,  also  require  to  sleep 
longer  than  those  who  are  half  asleep  when  awake.  Conva- 
lescents also  require  to  sleep  more  than  usual.  Each  must, 
therefore,  judge  for  himself,  and  while  all  should  sleep  enough, 
none  should  sleep  too  much.  Over-sleeping  is  as  injurious  as 
gluttony.  How  stupid,  palsied,  and  good-for-nothing  it  ren- 


21%  SLEEP. 

ders  us,  as  all  can  doubtless  testify.  Our  own  appetite  for 
sleep,  as  for  food69,  ufiperverted,  furnishes  us  with  an  infallible 
guide.  Nature  will  rouse  us  to  consciousness  when  our  sleep 
is  out.  And  when  thus  aroused,  all  should  spring  at  once 
from  their  couch.  To  hug  the  pilbw,  half  asleep  and  half 
awake,  is  most  pernicious,  and,  like  over-eating,  only  craves 
the  more,  besides  too  often  inducing,  or  at  least  facilitating, 
impure  feelings,  which  too  often  result  in  vice.  Would  that 
I  could  duly  impress,  especially  on  youth,  the  importance  of 
rising  immediately  on  waking. 

128.       SEASON EARLY    RISING 

That  nature  clearly  indicates  night  as  the  best  time  for 
sleep  is  too  apparent  to  require  proof.  It  is  doubtful  whether 
we  should  sleep  from  evening  to  morning  twilight,  but  what 
time  we  do  sleep,  should  be  in  the  night,  except  in  cases  to  be 
mentioned.  This  sitting  up  half  the  night  and  sleeping  half 
the  next  day,  reverses  the  ordinances  of  nature,  and  must 
therefore  prove  injurious.  Extraordinaries  excepted  all  should 
rise  with  the  break  of  day,  and  especially  children,  who 
should  retire  soon  after  the  hens  do.  Better  sleep  mornings 
than  too  little,  yet  either  retire  the  earlier,  so  as  to  have  your 
sleep  out  at  least  before  sun-rise,  or  else  take  a  short  nap  in 
the  middle  of  the  day.  Those  whose  previously  formed  habits 
prevent  their  going  to  §leep  early,  even  when  they  go  to 
bed,  should  break  up  such  habits.  "  Early  to  bed  and  early 
to  rise/"'  is  the  motto  for  health.  The  customs  of  society 
may  sometimes  require  morning  sleep  by  preventing  a  duo 
degree  of  night  sleep.  Thus  the  author;  aftor  lecturing,  ofter. 
finds  his  nerves  so  excited  that,  though  he  retires,  the  bloov 
courses  'through  his  throbbing  brain  oo  aj  uUerly  to  defy 
sleep,  and  he  may  as  well  write  while  thir.  fever  last%  t>  con. 
pensate  for  which  he  is  obliged  to  d^ep  mr/rmngs,  whlcV  Wv- 
ever,  he  never  does  at  homo.  The  fact  is,  that  lec'^rts  and 
public  meetings  should  be  held  daytimes  instead  of  evenings, 


PROMOTION    OF    SLEEP.  213 

129.       PROMOTION. 

But  some  cannot  obtain  sleep  enough.  This  is  partially 
true  of  the  author,  especially  after  lecturing  and  writing. 
Any  preternatural  excitement  of  the  brain  and  nervous  sys- 
tem prevents  a  due  supply  of  this  commodity.  So  do  mental 
troubles,  over  exertion,  disordered  stomachs,  and  disease  of 
any  kind.  In  all  these  and  kindred  cases,  sleep  should  be 
promoted.  This  can  be  done  by  previous  PREPARATION.  As, 
to  enjoy  our  meals,  we  must  first  become  hungry,  and  also 
prepare  them,  so  we  should  sharpen  up  our  sleeping  appetite, 
and  also  prepare  ourselves,  mentally  and  physically,  for  this 
delightful  repast  and  grand  restorer  of  exhausted  energy. 
This  can  be  facilitated  by  a  due  degree  of  action,  especially 
muscular.  To  overdo  causes  wakefulness,  yet  a  due  quan- 
tity of  muscular  exercise  every  day  of  our  lives  is  eminently 
promotive  of  refreshing  sleep  at  night.  And  those  who  would 
enjoy  sleep  must  exercise.  Especially  those  whose  wakeful- 
ness  is  caused  by  nervous  or  cerebral  excitability.  Become 
comfortably  tired,  and  you  are  prepared  for  refreshing  sleep. 

Such  should  also  avoid  excitement,  and  seek  quiet  in  the 
evening  before  retiring.  In  short,  reduce  that  cerebral  action 
which  keeps  you  awake,  directions  for  doing  which  will  be 
given  hereafter. 

The  wakeful  should  especially  go  to  bed  soon  after  becom- 
ing drowsy,  else  they  become  extra  wakeful,  and  remain  so 
perhaps  much  of  the  night.  This  direction  is  particularly 
important.  Yet  going  to  bed  only  to  lay  awake,  or  before  we 
are  prepared  for  sleep,  is  also  bad.  We  should  try  to  go  to 
sleep  as  soon  as  possible  after  going  to  bed. 

Amusements,  if  of  a  pleasing,  soothing  kind,  also  promote 
sleep.  Especially  domestic  amusements,  as  playing  with 
children,  conversing  with  friends,  and  the  like.  But  exhilarat- 
ing, exciting  amusements  intercept  sleep.  Especially  promo- 
tive of  sleep  is  a  quiet,  happy  frame  of  mind,  while  unpleas- 
ant feelings,  especially  anger,  retard  it,  so  that  the  former 
should  always  be  cultivated,  and  the  latter  avoided,  both  in 
ourselves  and  in  children.  "  Let  not  the  sun  go  down  upon 
your  wrath,"  is  doubtless  founded  in  this  physiological  law. 


214  SLEEP. 

Hence,  to  induce   children  to  have  a  good  play  or  frolic  just 
before  going  to  bod,  is  an  excellent  practice. 

Religious  contemplations  and  devotional  exercises- are  espe- 
cially promotive  of  sleep.  They  diffuse  over  the  soul  a  de- 
lightful quiet,  a  heavenly  calmness,  which  invite  sleep.  A 
physician  once  directed  a  wakeful  patient  to  THINK  ON  Goo, 
when  he  would  go  to  sleep  but  could  not,  and  the  patient  said 
that  for  forty  years,  whenever  wakefulness  returned,  follow- 
ing this  prescription  soon  lulled  him  to  sleep.  Family  devo- 
tion induces  a  similar  preparation. 

Moderate  fasting  promotes  sleep,  while  a  full  stomach  re- 
tards it.  The  English  think  differently  and  eat  on  retiring ; 
but  if  a  full  stomach  facilitated  sleep,  we  should  become  hun- 
gry when  we  became  sleepy,  whereas  sleep  diminishes  appe- 
tite. In  fact,  we  eat  the  less  when  we  sleep  abundantly,  and 
the  more  the  less  we  sleep. 

Invalids,  and  the  sick  in  particular,  require  to  sleep  much. 
As  a  restorative  means,  medicines  bear  no  comparison  with 
sleep.  Hence,  wakening  the  sick  to  give  drugs  is  consum- 
mate folly.  Nor  is  there  a  better  sign  of  a  favorable  turn  of 
disease  than  disposition  to  sleep,  provided  it  be  natural.  A 
state  of  mere  stupidity  is  a  bad  sign,  but  this  differs  materially 
from  natural  sleep. 

Invalids  and  the  wakeful  should  also  guard  assiduously 
against  being  disturbed  when  once  asleep,  till  fully  rested,  on 
pain  of  subsequent  wakefulness.  Many  weakly  mothers  have 
ruined  their  health  and  lost  their  lives  by  crying  children. 
Yet  that  they  can  so  train  them  as  to  sleep  soundly  all  night, 
from  infancy  to  maturity,  will  be  fully  shown  in  the  author's 
work  on  "  Maternity."  See  also  49°. 

A  day  nap  is  also  most  excellent  for  invalids,  children,  and 
all  who  do  not  or  cannot  obtain  sleep  enough  during  the  night. 
A  mere  doze  is  to  such  most -refreshing.  If  you  cannot  get  to 
sleep  the  first  few  times,  keep  trying  till  you  can,  and  you 
will  soon  form  tne  habit.  And  even  when  you  do  not  lose 
yourself,  the  rest  will  be  beneficial. 

The  best  posture  for  promoting  sleep  is  doubtless  recumbent 
OP  the  back,  because  it  facilitates  respiration.  Laying  wholly 


BEDS    AND    BEDDING.  2l5 

on  either  side  often  causes  the  internal  organs  and  even  brain 
to  sag  and  remain  more  on  that  side,  which  is  evidently  inju- 
rious. Habituate  children  to  sleep  on  the  back,  and  if  on 
either  side,  also  on  both. 

A  slight  elevation  of  the  head  may  be  beneficial,  yet  habit 
aside,  the  horizontal  posture  for  both  head  and  body  is  proba- 
bly the  best. 

130.      BEDS  AND  BEDDING. 

ON  what  should  we  sleep  ?  Something  HARD.  Mat- 
tresses are  preferable  to  feathers  because  not  so  hard  as 
to  give  pain,  nor  so  soft  as  to  enervate.  Nor  are  straw 
beds  any  too  hard.  Feather  beds  are  decidedly  unwhole- 
some, especially  in  summer.  Being  animal  matter,  they  are 
subject  to  decay,  and  hence  their  unpleasant  odor,  which  of 
course  vitiates  the  air  and  breeds  disease.  They  are  also 
relaxing  and  weakening.  Sunk  into  a  pile  of  feathers,  per- 
spiration  cannot  escape,  sleep  is  disturbed  and  does  not  refresh, 
and  we  awaken  with  a  headache,  feel  prostrate,  and  unfitted 
for  pleasure  or  business.  Not  so  with  mattresses.  Of  these, 
those  made  of  cotton  are  doubtless  the  best.  Mr.  Ellsworth, 
in  his  patent  report,  says  they  are  "  the  cheapest,  most  com- 
fortable, and  most  healthy  material  for  bedding  known  to  the 
civilized  world.  Vermin  will  not  abide  in  them  :  unlike  hair 
and  wool,  they  contain  no  grease,  do  not  become  stale  or  ac- 
quire an  unpleasant  odor  like  feathers,  besides  being  in  many 
cases  medicinal — raw  cotton  worn  on  parts  affected  with 
rheumatism  being  known  to  be  one  of  the  best  and  most  effec- 
tual cures."  He  also  considers  them  as  cheap  again  as  any 
other  kind,  as  seen  in  the  following  estimate  : — 

Cost  of  Hair  Mattress  at  50c.  pr.  Ib.  30a40  Ibs.  from  15  to  $20 

"         Wool         "  30c.    "  "         cost  "     11  to    32 

"         Feathers  "  30c.    "          40  12 

"         Moss         "  —       "  "          "  "  12 

"         Cotton      "  30c.     "  8c.  with  cost  of  ticking,  at  12^  cts. 

per  yard,  labor,  thread,  etc.  $6  65 

The  habit  of  sleeping  under  a  stack  of  bed-clothes  is  also 
equally  as  pernicious  as  a  superabundance  of  clothes  by  day. 
They  prevent  sleep  and  retain  aboil  the  body  all  the  corrupt 


216  THE   GLANDULAR    SYSTEM. 

effluvia  it  throws  off,  and  which  should  be  allowed  to  escape. 
None  should  sleep  cold,  yet  all  should  habituate  themselves  to 
as  little  as  possible  and  keep  comfortable.  And  during  the 
day,  these  clothes  should  be  thrown  upon  the  backs  of  chairs 
and  thoroughly  aired  in  a  draft  till  towards  evening, 

The  practice  of  covering  up  the  head  under  the  bed-clothes 
is  most  pernicious.  Almost  as  well  not  breathe  at  all  as  to 
breathe  over  and  over  again  the  same  foetid  air101. 


SECTION  VI. 

THE    GLANDULAR    SYSTEM,    AND    ABSORBENTS. 
131.       NECESSITY    AND    STRUCTURE. 

As  important  a  portion  of  the  human  structure  as  this 
deserves  a  passing  notice,  yet  we  shall  not  dwell.  Of  the 
general  function  of  some  of  the  larger  glands,  as  the  salivary 
glands,  liver,  pancreas,  messentary,  etc.,  mention  has  already 
been  made.  Their  respective  functions  are  indispensable  to 
life,  as  is  the  action  of  the  kidneys  in  secreting  from  the  ar- 
terial blood  that  urea  manufactured  in  the  process  of  life,  the 
superabundance  of  which  arrests  the  vital  process; 

These  glands  are  formed,  somewhat  like  the  lungs,  with 
two  sets  of  capillary  vessels,  the  one  for  the  ramification  of 
blood,  and  the  other  for  secreting  their  respective  materials, 
The  accompanying  engraving  furnishes  a  faint  illustration  of  the 
arterial  structure  of  a  gland.  Both  the  venoys  and  secretory 
structures  are  similar,  all  their  respective  ramifications  being 
almost  infinitely  minute. 

The' various  secretions  made  in  these  glandular  ramifications 
are  emptied  into  ducts,  and  these  into  one  another  till  all  are 
emptied  into  one  common  reservoir  and  carried  to  their  place 
of  destination. 

132.       THE    INTER-RELATION    OF    THE    GLANDULAR    SYSTEM  AND    MINP. 

Though  all  parts  of  the  system  reciprocate  their  several 
conditions  with  all  the  others,  yet  this  reciprocity  seems  to  be 


THE    ABSORBENTS.  217 


No.  15.     THE  STRUCTURE  OF  A  GLAND. 

more  intimate  between  the  glandular  functions  and  the 
cerebral  than  between  any  of  the  others.  Every  change  and 
phrase  of  mental  action  produces  a  corresponding  change  in 
the  glandular  action.  Thus,  thinking  of  food  "  makes  the 
mouth  water,"  that  is,  excites  a  copious  secretion  and  discharge 
of  the  salivary  glands ;  sadness  retards,  and  pleasurable  emo- 
tions augment  the  action  of  the  liver ;  the  former  accelerating 
and  the  latter  preventing  digestion  ;  grief  provokes  a  copious 
secretion  of  the  lachrymal  glands  in  the  form  of  tears,  and 
sudden  joy  sometimes  has  a  similar  effect ;  and  thus  of  the 
others.  But  the  most  conspicuous  illustration  of  this  principle 
will  be  found  mentioned  in  "Love  and  Parentage,"  and 
applies  to  the  secretion  employed  as  the  messenger  of  life. 

The  great  practical  lesson  taught  by  this  reciprocity  is  the 
importance  of  keeping  the  mind  in  that  calm  and  happy  frame 
which  promotes  glandular  secretion,  and  thereby  health. 

133.       THE    ABSORBENTS 

Also  deserve  notice  in  this  connection.  They  are  stationed 
.hrbughout  the  entire  system  for  the  double  purpose  of  taking 
up  foreign  matters;,  such  as  biles  and  other  tumors  which  do 
not  come  to  a  head,  and  also  any  deposites  of  fat  which  may 
be  found  in  the  system  when  wanted  by  it.  The  fat  of  the 
body  is  only  a  deposite  of  its  surplus  carbon,  stored  up  against 
19 


218  1HE    'BONES. 

a  time  of  want.  When  imperfect  digestion  or  a  deficiency  cf 
food  renders  the  supply  of  carbon  unequal,  for  the  time  being, 
to  the  demand,  these  absorbents  take  up  this  fat  and  empty  it 
into  the  chyle-duct  and  so  into  the  circulation,  and  hence  the 
falling  away  of  the  sick  or  starving.  When  this  fat  or  store 
of  carbon  is  exhausted  by  protracted  hunger  or  stomatic  disease, 
these  absorbents  take  up  even  muscle  and  cellular  tissue  and 
empty  them  also  into  the  circulation,  and  hence  the  extreme 
emaciation  of  the  starving,  of  consumptives,  dyspeptics,  and 
the  sick  generally.  This  provision  against  any  deficiency  of 
nutrition  is  inimitably  beautiful  and  useful. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

LOCOMOTION ITS    APPARATUS    AND    NECESSITY, 


SECTION  I. 

THE  OSSEOUS  SYSTEM. 
134.      THE    EXPENDITURE    OF    THE    VITALITY. 

THUS  far  we  have  seen  by  what  instrumentalities  vitality  is 
supplied.  Yet  all  this  ingenious  arrangement  for  its  supply 
would  have  been  useless  but  for  some  means  for  effecting  its 
expenditure.  This  vitality  may  be  considered  the  raw  mate- 
rial of  life — the  stock  in  trade  of  the  mechanic.  It  next  re- 
quires to  be  WORKED  UP  into  the  various  ends  of  life  or  it  will 
avail  nothing.  For  this  expenditure  nature  has  made  provi 
sions  quite  as  ample  as  for  its  supply.  This  expenditure  con 
sists  in  two  things,  motion  and  the  mentality,  sensation  in- 
eluded.  To  subserve  these  two  ends  the  entire  human  struc- 
ture, the  inimitably  beautiful  vital  apparatus  included,  was 
created.  Without  motion,  man  must  always  have  remained 
in  one  place,  like  the  oyster,  and  been  incapable  of  speaking^ 
eating,  or  doing  a  single  thing,  and  without  mind  and  sensation 
he  would  have  been  incapable  of  experiencing  one  single  emo 


NECESSITY    OF   THE    OSSEOUS    SYSTEM.  319 

tion  of  pleasure  or  pain.  But  behold  and  admire  the  number 
and  variety  of  functions  effected  through  their  instrumentality  ! 
In  fact  they  embody  all  the  ends  of  his  being. 

To  effect  these  great  ends,  organs  adapted  thereto  are  ne- 
cessary. These  organs  consist  of  the  osseous,  muscular,  ner- 
vous, and  cerebral  systems,  to  the  discussion  of  which  our  sub. 
ject  thus  brings  us. 

135.       THE  OSSEOUS  SYSTEM ITS   NECESSITY  AND  STRUCTURE. 

As  but  for  the  timbers  of  buildings  nothing  would  support 
their  superstructure,  so,  but  for  some  kindred  frame-work 
within  the  body  both  to  keep  the  various  organs  in  place,  and 
to  form,  as  it  were,  timbers  or  fulcrums  for  the  attachment  of 
the  muscles,  motion  would  be  impossible  ;  and  the  first  pro- 
vision of  a  motive  apparatus  consists  in  devising  these  sup- 
porting timbers.  With  such  a  provision  nature  has  furnished 
the  human  body  in  the  form  of  BONES.  With  their  general 
appearance  all  must  be  familiar.  They  are  composed  princi- 
pally of  two  substances,  animal  and  earthy,  into  the  latter  of 
which  lime  and  phosphorus  enter — the  former  imparting  life, 
and  the  latter  firmness.  In  youth  the  animal  predominates, 
and  hence  the  greater  flexibility  of  young  bones.  This  also 
prevents  fractures,  aids  to  break  the  falls  of  children,  and  fa- 
cilitates growth,  it  being  the  first  part  of  the  bone  formed, 
as  seen  in  the  tender  cartilage  of  chicken  bones.  But  as  age 
advances,  the  earthy  materials  of  bones  predominate  over  the 
animal,  because  the  muscles,  having  become  stronger,  require 
augmented  stiffness  to  prevent  their  bending,  and  because  ex- 
perience enables  us  to  guard  against  falls.  As  the  earthy 
predominates  the  bones  become  more  and  more  brittle — and 
hence  the  greater  frangibility  of  the  bones  of  the  aged — till, 
in  a  certain  disease  which  consumes  their  animal  matter,  they 
break  from  slight  strains ;  whereas  in  another  disease  which 
consumes  their  earthy  matter,  but  leaves  their  gelatinous,  they 
can  be  bent  any  way,  and  even  tied  up  in  knots  without 
breaking  ;  yet  in  this  case  motion  is  impossible.  These  bones 
are  also  ramified  with  blood-vessels  and  nerves,  the  former  to 
supply  growth  and  vitality,  and  the  latter  to  impart  sensation. 


THE    BONES. 

But  these  bones  are  not  formed  in  one  solid,  continuous  stick, 
but  number  about  252,  united  by  joints,  and  held  together  by 
powerful  ligaments.  At  these  joints,  the  bones  enlarge,  and 
become  spongy — though  the  weight  of  their  ends  is  not  great- 
er than  of  their  middle  portions — which,  together  with  an 
elastic  plating  between  them  serves  to  deaden  the  blows 
of  a  fall  or  jump  upon  the  feet,  so  that,  before  it  reaches  the 
brain,  it  is  comparatively  obviated,  and  that  delicate  structure 
saved  from  contusion.  Throw  200  pounds  down  ten  feet — a 
distance  we  often  jump — and  see  how  hard  it  strikes.  Not  so 
with  man.  A  membrane  is  also  stationed  at  each  joint  to  se- 
crete an  oleaginous  substance  more  slippery  than  oil,  to  lubri- 
cate these  joints,  and  prevent  their  wearing  out  by  the  power- 
ful and  almost  perpetual  friction  occasioned  by  muscular  con- 
traction and  the  weight  of  the  body,  and  to  facilitate  the  ease 
of  motion. 

Besides  those  powerful  cords  which  tie  the  bones  together  at 
their  joints,  so  as  to  resist  their  tendency,  when  the  muscles 
contract  powerfully  upon  them,  to  slip  past  each  other,  as  in 
sprains  and  dislocations — the  evils  of  which  some  of  us  may 
have  experienced — they  are  fitted  into  one  another  in  the  form 
of  HINGES — a  ridge  in  one  exactly  fitting  to  a  corresponding 
depression  in  the  other — and  of  BALL  AND  SOCKET  joints,  as  in 
those  of  the  hips  and  shoulders,  where  a  ball  in  one  fits  exactly 
into  a  socket  in  the  other,  so  as  to  allow  motion  in  all  direc- 
tions. 

These  bones  are  not  scattered  about  at  random,  but  simi- 
larly formed  bones  are  always  found  in  similar  positions,  ex- 
actly fitted  to  subserve  their  respective  ends.  Thus  attached 
they  constitute  the  hurran  SKELETON  or  framework  of  the  body, 
as  represented  in  the  accompanying  engraving,  which,  witli 
the  description  is  copied  from  A.  Combe. 

"  The  TRUNK,  as  will  be  seen  from  the  annexed  cut,  consists  of 
the  SPINE  a  a,  the  RIBS  r  r,  the  STERNUM  a:,  and  the  PELVIS  s  s. 
The  spine,  vertebral  column,  or  back-bone  a  a,  which  supports  all 
the  upper  parts,  is  a  very  remarkable  piece  of  mechanism.  It  is 
composed  in  all  of  twenty-four  separate  bones,  called  VERTEBRA, 
from  the  Latin  word  VERTERE  to  turn,  as  the  body  turns  upon 
them  as  on  a  pivot.  Of  these,  seven,  called  CERVICAL  vertebra, 


THEIR    STRUCTURE. 


221 


belong  to  the  neck;  twelve,  connected  with  the  ribs,  and  called 
DORSAL,  to  the  back  ;  and  five,  called  LUMBAR,  to  the  loins.  The 
base  of  the  column  rests  on  the  SACRUM  w,  which  is  closely  coin- 


No.  16.     THE  SKELETON. 


pacted  between  the  bones  of  the  pelvis  s  s.  The  vertebrae  are 
firmly  bound  to  each  other  in  such  a  way  as  to  admk  of  flexion  and 
extension  and  a  certain  degree  of  rotation,  while,  by  their  solidity 
and  firm  attachment  to  each  other,  great  strength  is  secured.  Some 
conception  of  this  strength  may  be  formed,  when  we  consider  the 
enormous  loads  which  some  athletic  men  are  able  to  carry  on  their 
shoulders,  or  raise  in  their  hands  ;  the  whole  weight  of  which  is 
necessarily  borne  by  the  vertebrae  of  the  loins.  As  the  space  oc- 


222  THE   BONES. 

cupied  by  the  abdomen  gives  large  outward  dimensions  to  this  re- 
gion of  the  body,  it  is  only  upon  reflection  that  we  perceive  that  the 
whole  force  exerted  by  the  human  frame  in  its  most  strenuous  ef- 
forts centers  in  the  bony  column  we  are  now  examining. 

"  While  the  smooth  or  rounded  forepart  or  BODY  of  the  vertebrae 
affords  support  to  the  superincumbent  psirts,  the  projecting  ridge 
behind,  and  rugged  processes  at  the  sides,  combine  with  it  to  form 
a  large  tube  or  canal,  extending  from  the  top  to  the  bottom  of  the 
column,  and  in  which  the  spinal  marrow  is  contained  and  protected. 
Between  each  of  the  vertebra  a  thick  compressible  cushion  of  car- 
tilage and  ligament  is  interposed,  which  serves  the  triple  purpose  of 
uniting  the  bones  to  each  other,  of  diminishing  and  diffusing  shocks 
received  in  walking  or  leaping,  and  of  admitting  a  greater  extent  of 
motion  than  if  the  bones  were  in  more  immediate  contact. 

"  The  ribs  r  r,  twelve  in  number  on  each  side,  are  attached  by 
their  heads  to  the  spine,  and  by  their  other  (cartilaginous)  extremi- 
ties to  the  STERNUM  or  breast-bone  x.  The  seven  uppermost  are 
called  true  ribs,  because  each  of  them  is  connected  directly  with  the 
sternum,  by  means  of  a  separate  cartilage.  The  five  lower  ribs  are 
called  FALSE,  because  one  or  two  of  them  are  loose  at  one  end,  and 
the  cartilages  of  the  rest  run  into  each  other,  instead  of  being  sepa- 
rately prolonged  to  the  breast-bone.  The  use  of  the  ribs  is  to  form 
the  cavity  of  the  chest  for  the  reception  and  protection  of  the  lungs, 
heart,  and  great  blood-vessels,  and  to  assist  in  respiration  by  their 
alternate  rising  and  falling.  This  action  enlarges  and  diminishes 
by  turns  the  size  of  the  chest  and  the  capacity  of  the  lungs. 

"  The  PELVIS  5  5,  is  formed  by  the  broad  flat  bones  which  support 
the  bowels,  and  serve  for  the  articulation  of  the  thigh.  A  general 
notion  of  their  appearance  and  uses  may  be  obtained  from  inspec- 
tion of  the  cut,  which,  however,  does  not  represent  with  perfect 
accuracy  the  minuter  structure. 

"  The  bones  of  the  UPPER  EXTREMITIES  are,  the  SCAPULA  or 
shoulder-blade ;  the  CLAVICLE  or  collar-bone  y ;  the  HUMERUS  or 
arm-bone  6  ,-  the  RADIUS  of,  and  ULNA  e,  or  bones  of  the  forearm ; 
and  the  small  CARPAL  and  METACARPAL  bones/ and  PHALANGES  g, 
forming  the  wrist,  hand,  and  fingers. 

"  The  SCAPULA  is  the  broad  flat  bone  lying  at  the  upper  part  of  the 
back,  familiarly  known  as  the  shoulder-blade,  and  so  troublesome  to 
many  young  ladies  by  its  unseemly  projection.  It  serves  to  con- 
nect the.arm  with  the  trunk  of  the  body,  and  gives  origin  to  many 
of  the  muscles  by  which  the  former  is  put  in  motion.  The  COLLAR- 
BONE y,  extends  from  the  breast-bone  outwards  to  the  scapula.  Its 
chief  use  is  to  prevent  the  arms  from  falling  forward  in  front  of  the 
body ;  and  hence  it  is  wanting  in  the  lower  animals,  whose  superior 
extremities  are  much  closer  to  each  other  than  those  of  man. 

"  The  HUMERUS  or  arm-bone  b  is  adapted  by  a  kind  of  ball  and 
socket  joint  to  a  corresponding  surface  in  the  scapula,  and  hence 
enjoys  great  latitude  of  motion,  and,  from  the  shallowness  of  the  re- 
ceptacle, is  somewhat  liable  to  dislocation.  The  RADIUS  and  ULNA 
d  e  constituting  the  forearm,  are  connected  with  the  humerus  by  a 


NECESSITY    OF    MUSCLES.  223 

binge-like  joint,  which  admits  readily  of  flexion  and  extension,  but 
not  of  rotation  :  and  as  the  articulation  is  of  a  peculiar  construction, 
it  is  rarely  dislocated.  The  movements  of  pronation  and  supina- 
tion,  or  turning  round  the  hand,  are  effected,  not  by  the  elbow  joint, 
but  by  the  radius  d  moving  upon  the  ulna  e,  by  means  of  joints 
formed  for  this  purpose.  The  wrist  and  finger-joints  are  too  com- 
plicated to  admit  of  explanation  here. 

"  The  lower  extremities  consist  of  the  os  FEMORIS  or  thigh-bone 
i ;  the  PATELLA  or  knee-pan  I ;  the  TIBIA  m,  and  FIBULA  ?*,  or  leg 
bones ;  and  the  TARSAL  and  METATARSAL  bones  0,  and  PHALANGES 
jp,  composing  the  ankle,  foot,  and  toes. 

"  The  thigh-bone  i  is  articulated  by  means  of  a  large  round  head 
deeply  sunk  into  a  corresponding  hollow  in  the  pelvis  at  h  ;  free- 
dom of  motion  being  thus  combined  with  great  security.  The 
thigh  may  be  moved  backwards  and  forwards  as  in  walking ;  and 
also  outwards  and  inwards,  as  when  sitting  on  horseback,  or  with 
the  legs  crossed.  The  socket  being  much  deeper  than  that  of  the 
shoulder-joint,  the  thigh-bone  has  not  the  same  range  of  motion  as 
the  humerus,  but  it  has  proportionally  greater  security. 

"  The  PATELLA  or  knee-pan  I  is  well  known.  It  is  a  small  bone 
constituting  the  projection  of  the  knee.  It  increases  the  power  of 
the  muscles  which  extend  the  leg,  and  protects  the  front  of  the 
knee-joint.  The  TIBIA  m  is  the  principal  bone  of  the  leg,  and  is  the 
only  one  articulated  with  that  of  the  thigh.  Its  lower  end  forms 
the  projection  at  the  inner  ankle.  The  FIBULA  n  is  the  long  slender 
bone  at  the  outer  side  of  the  leg,  the  lower  end  of  which  forms  the 
outer  ankle.  The  TIBIA  and  FIBULA  both  contribute  to  the  forma- 
tion of  the  ankle-joint,  which,  like  that  of  the  knee,  is  almost  limited 
to  flexion  and  extension." 


SECTION.  II. 

THE  MUSCLES — THEIR    NECESSITY,    STRUCTURE,    FORMATION,    AND 
EXERCISE. 

136        NECESSITY,  STRUCTURE,  AND  OFFICE. 

YET  this  beautiful  structure  of  bones  and  joints  every-  way 
so  perfectly  adapted  to  serve  as  a  foundation  for  the  motive 
apparatus,  would  be  as  inert  as  so  many  sticks  but  for  something 
like  ROPES  and  PULLEYS  to  put  them  in  motion.  These  means 
are  supplied  by  MUSCLES.  They  lie  beneath  the  skin,  upon  and 
around  the  bones,  and  constitute  the  red  meat  of  animals  and 
man.  Every  human  being  is  endowed  with  some  527,  of  all 
required  shapes  and  sizes,  exactly  adapted  to  produce  Jhose 

, 


224  THE   MUSCLES. 

innumerable  and  most  powerful  motions  of  which  man  is 
capable.  They  ovar-lap,  under-lay,  and  interweave  each 
other  in  all  conceivable  ways,  and  are  inclosed  in  a  smooth 
peritoneal  membrane  which  allows  them  to  slide  upon  each 
other  without  friction  ;  else  their  powerful  contraction  would 
soon  wer.r  them  into  shreds.  They  are  composed  of  innu- 
merable strings  or  fibres  bound  together  into  one  common 
bundle,  the  contracting  or  shortening  of  which  results  in  mo- 
tion. Indeed,  this  contractile  power  constitutes  their  sole 
function,  and  is  effected  by  an  expenditure  of  vital  force.  And 
as  one  end  of  these  several  muscles  is  attached  to  one  bone 
and  the  other  to  another  across  a  joint,  this  contraction  moves 
one  or  the  other  of  these  bones,  and  of  course  produces  mo- 
tion. This  is  illustrated  more  fully  in  the  accompanying  en- 
graving and  description. 


No.  17.     THE  MUSCLES  OF  THE  ARM. 

The  figure  represents  the  bones  of  the  arm  and  hand,  having  all 
the  soft  parts  dissected  off,  except  one  muscle  O  B  I,  of  which  the 
function  is  to  hend  the  arm.  O  the  origin  of  the  muscle.  B  the 
belly.  I  the  insertion.  T  T  the  tendons.  S  the  shoulder-joint. 
E  the  elbow.  When  the  belly  contracts,  the  lower  extremity  of 
the  muscle  I,  is  brought  nearer  to  the  origin  or  fixed  point  O,  and 
by  thus  bending  the  arm  at  the  elbow-joint,  raises  up  the  weight 
W  placed  in  the  hand-. 

These  muscles  are  largest  m  the  middle — the  part  which 
contracts  and  taper  off  into  tendons — those  strong  cords  seen 
in  the  wrists,  back  of  the  hands,  insteps,  and  above  the  heels, 
so  that  many  muscles  may  be  attached  to  a  single  bone,  else 
the  size  of  the  bones  must  have  been  bunglingly  largo.  The 
strength  of  these  cords  is  tested  by  hanging  slaughtered  an i- 


THEIR    STRUCTURE. 


225 


mals  up  on  sticks  thrust  under  these  tendons,  and  also  by  the 
tenacity  with  which  they  adhere  to  the  bones,  as  well  as  by 
our  ability  to  stand  on  one  foot  and  toss  the  body  about  by 
one  of  these  tendons — that  of  Achilles  at  the  heel.  Their  at- 
tachment  is  formed  on  processes  or  ridges  in  the  bones,  or  on 
their  heads  near  joints,  which  processes  are  the  larger  the 
more  powerful  the  muscles. 

Single  motions  are  generally  effected  by  the  .contraction  of 
individual  muscles.  But  most  of  our  motions  are  compounds 
of  several,  effected  by  many  bones,  joints,  and  muscles  acting 
in  concert.  Thus  the  simple  lifting  of  the  hand  to  the  head 
is  effected  by  the  combined  motions  of  the  wrist,  elbow  and 
shoulder ;  and  in  walking,  apparently  so  easy,  nearly  all  the 
muscles  and  bones  of  the  body  are  brought  into  requisition ; 
so  much  so  that  even  the  tying  of  the  hands  greatly  impedes  it. 

Many  of  the  motions  of  the  body,  as  climbing,  leaping,  lift- 
ing,  etc.,  require  the  CONCERTED  as  well  as  powerful  action  of 
every  muscle  of  the  body.  This  concert  is  probably  effected 
by  means  of  a  cerebral  organ  of  motion  located  in  the  cere« 


No.  18.    LOCATION  OF  THE  CEREBRAL  ORGAN  OF  MOTION. 

ft*'- 


226 


THE   MUSCLES. 


bellum  in  the  middle  line  of  the  head  at  the  nape  of  the 
neck,  at  B.  of  the  foregoing  engraving :  A,  representing  the 
cerebellum,  and  a  a,  c  c,  d  d,  the  junction  of  the  spinal  nerve 
with  the  b'rain.  Indeed,  all  the  internal  organs,  heart,  lungs, 
liver,  etc.  undoubtedly  have  each  their  cerebral  organs,  just 
as  the  stomach  operates  by  means  of  Alimentiveness. 

Some  of  these  muscles  and  their  manner  of  producing  theif 
respective  motions  are  seen  in  the  accompanying  engraving 
and  description  copied  from  Combe. 

"  To  understand  the  uses  of  the 
various  muscles,  the  reader  has  only 
to  bear  in  mind  that  the  object  of  mus- 
cular contraction  is  simply  to  bring  the 
two  ends  of  the  muscle,  and  the  parts 
to  which  they  are  attached,  nearer  to 
each  other, — the  more  movable  being 
always  carried  towards  the  morevfixed 
point.  Thus  when  the  STERNO-MAS- 
TOID  muscle  f  g  contracts,  its  ex- 
tremities approximate,  and  the  head, 
being  the  movable  point,  is  pulled 
down  and  turned  to  one  side.  This 
may  be  easily  seen  in  the  living  subject, 
the  muscle  being  not  less  conspicuous, 
than  beautiful  in  its  outline.  Again, 
when  the  powerful  RECTOS  or  straight 
muscle  b  on  the  front  of  the  thigh 
contracts  with  force,  as  in  the  act  of 
kicking,  its  lower  end  attached  to  the 
knee-pan  and  leg,  tends  to  approximate 
to  the  upper  or  more  fixed  point,  and 
pulls  the  leg  strongly  forwards.  This 
occurs  also  in  walking.  But  when 
the  SARTORIUS  or  tailor's  muscle  c  is 
put  in  action,  its  course  being  oblique, 
the  movement  of  the  leg  is  no  longer 
in  a  cross  direction,  like  that  in  which 
tailors  sit;  and  hence  the  name  SAR- 
TORIUS. 

"  Another  variety  of  effect  occurs, 
when,  as  in  the  RECTUS  or  straight 
muscle  of  the  belly  i  i,  sometimes  one 
end  and  sometimes  both  are  the  fixed 
points.  When  the  lower  end  is  fixed, 
the  muscle  bends  the  body  forward, 
and  pu.ls  down  the  bones  of  the  chest. 
When,  as  more  rarely  happens,  the 


No.  19.  THE  MUSCLJ.S. 


THEIR    POWER.  227 

'"  *er  end  is  the  movable  point,  the  effect  is  to  bring  forward 
a  r  raise  the  pelvis  and  inferior  extremities ;  and,  when  both  ends 
a,  »  rendered  immovable,  the  contraction  of  the  muscle  tends 
to  compress  and  diminish  the  size  of  the  cavity  of  the  belly,  and 
th  •«  only  assists  the  natural  evacuations,  but  co-operates  in  the 
fui  ction  of  respiration. 

V  In  contemplating  this  arrangement,  it  is  impossible  not  to  be 
struck  with  the  consummate  skill  with  which  every  act  of  every 
org  MI  is  turned  to  account.  When  the  chest  is  expanded  by  a  full 
insj  tration,  the  bowels  are  pushed  downwards  and  forwards  to 
ma/se  way  for  the  lungs  ;  when  the  air  is  again  expelled,  and  the 
cavity  of  the  chest  diminished,  the  very  muscles  i  i  i,  which  effect 
this  by  pulling  down  the  ribs  contract  upon  the  bowels  also, — push- 
ing them  upwards  and  inwards,  as  can  be  plainly  perceived  by  any 
one  who  attends  to  his  own  breathing.  By  this  contrivance,  a 
gentle  and  constant  impulse  is  given  to  the  stomach  and  bowels, 
which  is  of  great  importance  to  th*  min  contributing  to  digestion 
and  in  propelling  their  contents  ;  and  one  cause  of  the  costiveness-, 
with  which  sedentary  people  are  so  habitually  annoyed,  is  the 
diminution  of  this  natural  motion  in  consequence  of  bodily  in- 
activity." 

137.       THE    POWER   OF   THE    MUSCULAR   SYSTEM. 

The  number,  variety,  and  power  of  the  motions  capable  of 
being  produced  by  these  muscles  are  indeed  most  wonderful, 
as  all  have  seen  and  experienced.  They  enable  us  to  climb 
the  lofty  tree,  and  even  the  smooth  pole  of  liberty — to  mount 
the  towering  mast,  and  not  only  support  ourselves  in  the 
rigging  of  the  ship,  but  to  put  forth  great  muscular  exertion 
while  she  is  tossing  and  rolling,  and  that  in  the  midst  of  the 
hurricane.  Standing  upon  our  feet,  we  can  toss  our  bodies — 
weighing  from  100  to  200  pounds — several  feet  upward  and 
forwards,  and  in  all  directions  for  many  hours  in  succession, 
as  in  dancing  and  the  circus.  Or  we  can  transport  it  fifty  or 
sixty  miles  between  sun  and  sun,  and  even  carry  many  pounds 
weight  upon  our  backs.  Or  we  can  chase  down  the  fleetest 
anima,  that  runs.  Or  we  can  labor  briskly  every  day,  for 
scores  3f  years.  Or  we  can  lift  and  carry  several  times  our 
own  weight.  Or  we  can  accomplish  a  multiplicity  of  power- 
ful and  protracted  bodily  exertions  and  do  a  variety  and 
amount  of  things  almost  without  end. 

"  The  muscular  power  of  the  human  body  is  indeed  wondeiful. 
A  Turkish  porter  will  trot  at  a  rapid  pace,  carrying  a  weight  of 
six  hundred  pounds.  Milo,  a  celebrated  athlete  from  Crotona* 


228  THE    MUSCLES. 

accustomed  himself  to  carry  the  greatest  burthens  and  by  degrees 
became  a  monster  in  strength.  It  is  said  that  he  carried  on  his 
shoulder  an  ox,  four  years  old,  weighing  upward  of  one  thousand 
pounds,  for  above  forty  yards,  and  afterward  killed  it  with  one  blow 
of  his  fist.  He  was  seven  times  crowned  at  the  Pythian  games, 
and  six  at  the  Olympian.  He  presented  himself  the  seventh  time, 
but  no  one  had  the  courage  to  enter  the  lists  against  him.  He  was 
one  of  the  disciples  of  Pythagoras,  and  to  his  uncommon  strength 
the  learned  preceptor  and  his  pupils  owe  their  lives.  The  pillar 
which  supported  the  roof  of  the  school  suddenly  gave  way,  but 
Milo  supported  the  whole  weight  of  the  building  and  gave  the 
philosopher  time  to  escape.  In  his  old  age  Milo  attempted  to  pull 
up  a  tree  by  its  roots  and  break  it.  He  partly  effected  it,  but  his 
strength  being  gradually  exhausted,  the  tree  when  cleft,  reunited, 
and  left  his  hand  pinched  in  the  body  of  it.  He  was  then  alone, 
and,  being  unable  to  disengage  himself,  died  in  that  position. 

"Haller  mentioned  that  he  saw  a  man  whose  finger  being  caught 
in  a  chain  at  the  bottom  of  a  mine,  by  keeping  it  forcibly  bent,  sup- 
ported by  that  means  the  weight  of  his  whole  body,  one  hundred 
and  fifty  pounds,  until  he  was  drawn  up  to  the  surface,  a  height  of 
six  hundred  feet. 

"  Augustus  XI.,  King  of  Poland,  could  roll  up  a  silver  plate  like  a 
sheet  of  paper,  and  twist  the  strongest  horse-shoe  asunder. 

"  A  Frenchman  who  was  attached  to  Rockwell  &  Stone's  Circus 
last  spring,  was  able  to  resist  the  united  strength  of  four  horses,  as 
was  witnessed  by  hundreds  in  New  York,  and  other  places.  A 
lion  is  said  to  have  left  the  impression  of  his  teeth  upon  a  piece  of 
solid  iron. 

"The  most  prodigious  power  of  muscle  is  exhibited  by  fish. 
The  whale  jnoves  with  a  velocity  through  the  dense  medium  of 
water  that  would  carry  him,  if  continued  at  the  same  rate,  round 
the  world  in  little  less  than  a  fortnight ;  and  a  sword-fish  has  been 
known  to  strike  his  weapon  quite  through  the  oak  plank  of  a  ship." 
—  Western  Literary  Messenger. 

The  following,  bearing  on  this  point,  is  taken  from  a  Scotch 
paper,  and  is  headed,  "  The  last  of  the  Stuarts."  It  is,  withal, 
an  excellent  hereditary  fact,  and  shows  that  the  Stuart  family 
were  most  remarkable  ior  great  physical  strength,  which  har- 
monizes with  the  principle  that  all  distinguished  men  are  both 
from  strong-constitutioned  and  long-lived  families;  he  being 
now  one  hundred  and  fifteen  years  old. — "  Hundreds  of  per- 
sons can  bear  testimony  to  his  amazing  strength,  from  which 
circumstance  he  got  the  bye-name  of  '  Jemmy  Strength.' 
Among  other  feats  he  could  carry  a  twenty-four  pounder 
cannon,  and  has  been  known  to  lift  a  cart-load  of  hay,  weigh- 
ing a  ton  and  a  half,  upon  his  back.  Many  a  time  has  he 


THEIR    POWER.  229 

taken  up  a  jackass,  and  walked  through  the  toll-bar,  ca/rying 
it  on  his  shoulders.  It  will  be  long  before  we  can  look  upon 
his  like  again,  to  hear  of  his  stories  of  1745,  and  his  glowing 
descriptions  of  the  young  Chevalier." 

Joiathan  Fowler,  of  Guildford,  Conn.,  walked  out  knee 
deep  through  the  mud,  oyster-shells,  and  filth  of  a  sea  shore 
at  low  tide,  to  a  shark  left  by  the  retiring  tide  in  a  pool,  cap- 
tured it  while  yet  alive,  though  it  was  weakened  by  having 
but  a  scanty  supply  of  water,  shouldered  it,  and  brought  it 
alive  on  his  back  to  the  shore,  which  weighed  five  hundred 
pounds ! — quite  a  load,  considering  that  it  was  not  the  most 
portable  of  articles,  nor  the  best  of  roads.  The  feats  of  the 
Ravel  family,  Bedouin  Arabs,  and  circus  performers  are  also 
in  point 

Nor  are  these  and  kindred  exhibitions  of  strength  by  any 
means  the  ultimatum  of  man's  muscular  capability.  A  due 
degree  of  TRAINING  would  enable  him  to  accomplish  much 
more.  We  are  but  lilliputians  in  comparison  with  what  man- 
kind  will  yet  become.  Most  exalted  are  my  ideas  of  man's 
muscular  powers.  I  believe  he  might  vie  with  the  lion  him- 
self as  to  absolute  strength,  and  carry  heavier  burdens  than 
horses.  Indeed,  Turkish  porters  now  transport  six  and  eight 
hundred  pounds  at  a  time  on  their  backs  with  ease,  and  the 
Belgian  giant  could  stand  up  under  TWO  TONS.  The  Chinese 
have  no  horses,  and  carry  their  teas  and  silks  between  two 
men  hundreds  of  miles  on  their  backs  !  If  man  can  effect 
all  he  now  does  without  either  muscular  discipline  or  the  ap- 
plication of  the  laws  of  hereditary  descent,  how  much  more 
with  1  The  human  race  is  yet  in  its  teens  in  everything,* 
muscular  capability  included.  We  little  realize  the  extent  to 
which  this  capability  can  be  carried  IN  OUR  OWN  SELVES,  if 
properly  disciplined.  This  brings  us  to  consider 

138.   THE  IMPORTANCE  OF  EXERCISE. 

Nor  was  this  motive  apparatus,  so  perfect,  so  powerful,  cre- 
ated to  lie  dormant,  but  to  be  USED.  Almost  innumerable 

*  See  a  series  of  articles  in  the  American  Phrenological  Journal,  enti* 
tied  '•  Progression  a  law  of  things."  in  Vote.  VII,  VIII,  and  IX. 
20 


230  THE   MUSCLES. 

arrangements  in  nature  COMPEL  such  exercise.  Thus  man  is 
ordained  to  exercise  his  muscles  in  tilling  the  soil,  in  order  to 
procure  food ;  in  changing  his  position  and  moving  from  place 
to  place  ;  in  making  and  working  machinery,  using  lools, 
building,  printing,  making  that  vast  variety  and  quantity  of 
articles  of  clothing,  furniture,  ornament,  and  all  the  innume- 
rable things  used  by  mankind,  and  even  in  reading,  writing, 
eating,  walking,  talking,  looking,  breathing,  and  all  those  mil- 
lions of  ends — great,  little,  and  almost  infinitely  diversified — 
requiring  locomotion,  which  every  member  of  the  human  family 
is  compelled  to  put  forth  continually  through  life. 

We  have  already  seen  the  importance  of  digestion,  circu- 
lation 82,  respiration  **,  perspiration  104,  and  sleep 126,  all  of  which 
exercise  promotes.  Who  has  not  seen  his  veins  become 
prominent  and  hardened  during  vigorous  exercise  on  account 
of  the  increased  passage  of  blood  through  them  ;  whereas  this 
swelling  appearance  of  the  veins,  is  never  found  in  the  indo- 
lent, except  in  fevers.  Whc  does  not  know  that  a  smart  lift, 
or  work,  or  run,  or  vigorous  exercise  of  any  kind,  increases 
the  frequency  and  power  of  the  pulse  as  well  as  the  rapidity 
and  volume  of  the  inspirations  ?  That  it  equally  accelerates 
the  perspiration  all  are  witnesses.  Who  has  not  seen  the 
sweat  run  down  in  streams  from  all  parts  of  the  body  during 
hard  labor  ?  And  who  does  not  know  how  much  more  heartily 
we  eat,  and  sweetly  and  soundly  we  sleep  with  than  without 
labor  ?  Nor  is  there  an  important  function  of  our  nature 
which  muscular  exercise  does  not  promote,  and  inaction  in- 
tercept. By  enhancing  respiration  it  augments  the  amount  of 
oxygen  M  and  carbon  w  consumed,  as  well  as  of  fibrine,  glutine, 
and  casseine  consumed,  indeed  of  all  the  materials  derived  from 
food  and  breath,  and  also  greatly  increases  the  expulsion  of  all 
noxious  matter  from  the  system  in  the  form  of  phlegm,  per- 
spiration,  and  respiration.  Besides  hurrying  the  circulation 
by  increasing  the  introduction  of  oxygen 89,  it  still  farther 
increases  the  flow  of  blood  by  urging  it  along  through  the 
veins ;  for  the  contraction  of  the  muscles  upon  the  veins, 
urges  their  contents  forward — backward  it  cannot  go90 — 
towards  the  heart,  Labor  also, quickens  the  action  of  the 


THEIR   POWER.  231 

bowels  and  of  the  digestive  process  generally  rr.  These  func- 
tions, constituting  no  small  portion  of  life  itself,  labor  enhances 
and  thus  augments  life  and  all  its  pleasures  and  powers. 
In  short,  museular  action  promotes  every  function  and  power, 
mental  and  physical,  of  our  entire  nature,  besides  being  indis. 
pensable  to  all.  He  who  does  not  work  can  therefore  enjoy  only 
ft  lower  degree  of  life  and  its  pleasures,  muscular  inaction 
deteriorating,  diseasing,  and  vitiating  the  entire  man  and 
woman.  Nature  still  farther  recommends  muscular  action 
bj  Jie 

139.       PLEASURES    OF    EXERCISE    AND    LABOR. 

Since  obedience  to  her  laws  occasions  pleasure7,  and  since 
/nuscular  exercise  is  thus  undoubtedly  one  of  her  laws,  we 
might  expect  it  to  be  freighted  with  a  great  variety  and  amount 
of  ENJOYMENT.  And  thus  experience  proves  it  to  be.  Con- 
fine yourselves,  or  even  sit  or  lie,  in  one  position  all  day,  and 
you  will  find  such  inaction  to  be  exceeding  painful.  See  how 
animals,  on  breaking  away  from  close  confinement,  run  and 
skip,  and  hop,  and  frisk  as  though  they  did  not  know  how  to 
contain  themselves.  How  many  times,  after  having  remained 
inactive  for  some  time,  on  going  out  have  you  been  filled  with 
an  amount  of  pleasure  in  action  better  felt  then  described. 
Nor  is  it  till  after  our  muscles  have  been  drilled  long  and 
severely,  and  even  become  enfeebled,  if  not  diseased,  by  in- 
action, that  we  can  keep  still  without  pain.  Idleness  is  un- 
natural. Action  is  natural  and  pleasurable  in  its  very 
nature.  See  how  much  real  pleasure  children  take  in  playing 
and  running — so  much  that  they  race  from  morning  to  night, 
and  cannot  be  kept  still  by  any  means  whatever.  How  much 
pleasure  a  smart  walk,  or  ride,  or  dance,  and  the  like  afford  ? 
Nor  do  the  sedentary  realize  how  much  pleasure  is  to  be 
taken  in  MANUAL  LABOR — it  being  excelled  only  by  that  taken 
in  eating,  breathing  and  sleeping.  Indeed,  those  who  do  not 
work  or  take  vigorous  exercise  in  some  way,  can  experience  but 
little  pleasure  in  life  ;  for  they  can  neither  eat,  nor  sleep,  nor 
breathe,  nor  think,  nor  feel  with  that  real  RELISH  so  essential 
to  enjoyment.  "  He  that  will  not  work,  neither  shall  he 
eat,"  is  writ/en  quite  as  legibly  on  the  physiological  con- 


232  THE    MUSCLES. 

stitution  of  man  as  in  the  Bible,  labor  being  indispensable  to 
appetite,  and  this  to  the  enjoyment  of  food,  besides  the  far 
greater  amount  of  food  which  nature  allows  him  who  works 
to  eat  with  impunity.  Nor  should  the  laborer  envy  the  rich 
their  ease  or  their  dainties ;  for  he  has  "  meat  to  eat  which 
they  know  not  of,"  luxuries  of  which  they  can  never  partake, 
till  they  create  a  relish  for  them  by  laboring  like  him.  For 
one,  I  would  as  soon  forego  the  pleasures  of  appetite  or  rest 
as  of  manual  labor.  I  say  labor,  because,  though  walking, 
riding,  hunting,  bowling,  dancing,  and  other  kinds  of  exercise 
are  better  than  none,  yet  none  of  them  compare  with  WORK  as 
a  means  of  promoting  health.  No  form  of  play,  no  other 
kind  of  exercise,  at  all  compares  with  LABOR,  especially 
AGRICULTURAL,  for  expanding  and  strengthening  the  chest, 
developing  all  the  organs,  and  thoroughly  exercising  every 
muscle  and  organ  in  the  body.  Better  ride,  or  walk,  or  dance, 
or  play  ball,  and  the  like,  than  nothing  ;  but  better  work  than 
either  or  all.  To  derive  the  pleasure  from  muscular  action 
it  is  capable  of  imparting,  we  must  DO  something — must  effect 
some  useful  END.  Exercise  for  its  own  sake  is  comparatively 
insipid  ;  but  when  we  are  achieving  some  useful  end  both 
its  utility  and  its  pleasures  are  redoubled.  You  may  play, 
but  let  me  WORK.  Give  m*  an  axe,  or  saw  or  hoe,  or  scythe, 
or  rake,  or  shovel,  or  some  kind  of  tool,  and  place  to  use  it, 
and  I  envy  you  not  the  pleasures  of  even  the  dance  and  hunt. 
Let  me  plow,  and  plant,  and  raise  food  for  my  table,  and  set 
out  and  tend  trees  that  I  may  enjoy  their  fruit,  and  add  to  the 
products  of  the  earth,  and  thereby  to  the  aggregate  of  human 
happiness.  God  has  told  man  PRACTICALLY  to  till  the  earth 
and  keep  it,  and  that  he  must  eat  his  bread  by  the  sweat  of  his 
brow.  Not  by  any  means,  as  generally  interpreted,  that 
such  toil  is  a  curse.  So  far  therefrom,  it  is  a  BLESSING,  and 
one  of  the  greatest  pleasures  of  earth.  Nor  is  labor  ever  a 
curse,  or  other  than  one  of  nature's  greatest  LUXURIES  except 
when  excessive  in  amount  or  ill-timed.  Nor  can  words 
portray  the  evils  consequent  on  the  false  notion  that  labor  is  a 
curse,  of  which  presently.  Indeed,  if  our  world  produced 
all  we  require  spontaneously,  without  any  requisition  for 


GREAT  MEN  BROUGHT  UP  TO  LABOR          233 

human  labor,  it  would  hardly  have  been  worth  living  in.  If 
these  views  of  the  utility  of  labor  require  confirmation  they 
have  it  in  the  fact  that 

140.       MOST  GREAT  MEN  LABORED  HARD  IN  YOUTH. 

What  distinguished  man  in  this  country  or  age,  or  any 
other,  but  took  a  great  amount  of  exercise  while  young  ?  And 
most  of  the  world's  geniuses  were  brought  up  to  HARD  WORK. 
Adam  Clarke  was  noted,  when  at  school,  for  his. great  physical 
strength  in  rolling  stones.  Shakespeare,  while  composing  his 
immortal  plays,  carried  brick  and  mortar  to  build  places  for 
their  performance.  John  Wesley  rode  and  walked  a  great 
many  thousand  miles,  and  it  was  this  habitual  exercise  which 
prepared  his  gigantic  intellect  to  put  forth  those  mighty  efforts 
which  enabled  him  to  do  so  much  good,  and  which  must  im- 
mortalize  his  name.  Elihu  Burritt,  probably  the  greatest 
scholar  of  the  age,  was  compelled  by  necessity  to  work  EIGHT 
HOURS  DAILY  at  the  anvil  in  order  to  furnish  himself  with  the 
means  of  prosecuting  his  intellectual  labors ;  and  it  was  this 
fact  of  his  thus  laboring  daily,  which  enabled  him  thus  to  take 
such  astonishing  strides  in  the  acquisition  of  knowledge. 
Clay  was  a  poor  boy,  and  actually  worked  for  a  living.  Henry 
Bascom,  the  great  western  orator,  travelled  west  ON  FOOT, 
with  his  axe  on  his  shoulders.  The  old  Roman  and  Grecian 
orators  took  a  great  amount  of  exercise  in  order  to  prepare 
themselves  for  public  speaking,  and  they  put  in  practice  one 
fundamental  principle  of  which  we  moderns,  with  all  our 
boasted  light  and  inventions,  have  lost  sight — that  of  strength- 
ening the  voice  by  gymnastic  exercises.*  Sir  Walter  Scott,f 
after  confining  himself  to  his  desk  for  several  days,  till  the 
energies  of  his  brain  had  become  exhausted,  would  mount 
his  horse,  call  out  his  dogs,  and  follow  the  chase  for  days  in 
succession,  till  he  had  restored  his  prostrated  energies,  and 

*  No  one  can  have  a  good  voice  without  having  a  good  muscular  sys- 
tem ;  and,  hence,  to  improve  the  tone  of  the  latter,  will  augment  the 
power  of  the  former.  Hence,  an  additional  reason  why  public  speakers 
should  labor. 

t  Madden's  Infirmities  of  Men  of  Genius. 


234  THE    MUSCUIAR    SYSTEM. 

then  returned  to  his  study.  When  Byron  entered  college, 
fearing  that  his  tendency  to  corpulency  would  injure  his  per- 
sonal beauty — of  which  he  was  very  proud — he  took  extremely 
severe  exercise  daily  in  order  to  reduce  it,  besides  leading  an 
extremely  abstemious  life.  Webster  was  a  backwoodsman, 
born  in  a  "  log-cabin,"  on  the  borders  of  the  unbroken  forest, 
and  inured  to  hard  labor.*  And  often,  breaking  away  from 
public  life,  and  shouldering  his  gun,  he  ranges  the  forests  for 
days  in  search  of  game,  besides  taking  much  exercise  daily. 
Franklin,  the  beacon-star  of  his  profession,  was  a  practical 
printer  and  a  hard  worker.  Patrick  Henry,  that  unrivalled 
star  of  genius  and  eloquence,  labored  on  the  farm  while 
young,  and  was  passionately  fond  of  music,  dancing,  and  the 
chase,  the  latter  of  which  he  often  followed  for  weeks  together, 
camping  out  in  true  hunter's  style. f  Need  we  mention  the 
Father  of  our  country,  its  pride  and  pattern  ?  Washington, 
when  not  employed  by  his  country,  labored  assiduously  upon 
his  farm ;  and  was  actually  driving  his  plough  when  he  re- 
ceived the  news  of  his  election  as  President.  Harrison,  "  the 
FARMER  of  North  Bend,"  led  a  life  of  great  physical  exertion 
and  exposure.  Burns,  the  Scottish  bard,  actually  composed 
much  of  his  poetry  when  at  work  on  a  farm.  President 
Dwight,  the  great  theologian  and  scholar,  attributed  much  of 
his  mental  vigor  to  daily  labor  in  his  garden.  John  Quincy 
Adams,  one  of  the  most  learned  men  of  the  age,  says  he  finds 
much  daily  exercise  indispensable. 

Both  while  in  college,  and  during  my  professional  visits  to 
our  principal  colleges  since  my  graduation,  I  have  observed 

*  See  his  speech  at  Saratoga  Springs,  in  1844. 

t  After  his  removal  to  Louisa,  he  has  been  known  to  hunt  deer,  fre- 
quently for  several  days  together,  carrying,  his  provision  with  him,  and  at 
night  encamping  in  the  woods.  After  the  hunt  was  over,  he  would  go 
from  the  ground  to  Louisa  court,  clad  in  a  coarse  cloth  coat,  stained  with 
all  the  trophies  of  the  chase,  greasy  leather  breeches,  ornamented  in  the 
same  way,  leggings  for  boots,  and  a  pair  of  saddle-bags  on  his  arm.  Thus 
accoutred,  he  would  enter  the  courthouse,  take  up  the  first  of  his  causes 
that  chanced  to  be  called ;  and  if  there  was  any  scope  for  his  peculiar 
talent,  throw  his  adversary  into  the  background,  and  astonish  both  court 
and  juiy,  by  the  powerful  effusions  of  his  natural  eloquence. —  Wirt's  Life 
of  Patrick  Henry. 


GXEAT   MEN    BROUGHT   UP   TO    LABOR.  235 

as  a  uniform  fact,  that  those  students  who  have  been  brought 
up  without  having  labored,  never  take  a  high  intellectual 
stand,  except  in  parrot-like  scholarship.  They  always  show 
a  want  of  mental  vim  and  pith,  and  the  powers  of  close,  hard 
thinking.  After  they  enter  upon  the  business  of  life,  their 
case  is  still  worse.  For  them  to  rise  to  eminence  is  impossi- 
ble. O,  I  thank  God  and  my  father  that  I  was  obliged  to 
WORK  hard  and  constantly  on  a  farm  till  sixteen  years  of  age, 
when  I  began  to  prepare  for  college.  Leaving  home  with  only 
four  dollars  in  the  world,  with  my  all  upon  my  back,  I  travel- 
led four  hundred  miles,  WORKED  my  way  to  college,  and 
through  college,  and,  instead  of  earning  my  money  by  teach- 
ing school,  supported  myself  by  sawing,  splitting,  and  carry- 
ing up  the  wood  of  my  fellow-students,  THREE  AND  FOUR 
FLIGHTS  OF  STAIRS,  improving  in  this  way  every  hour,  except 
study  hours,  and  often  portions  of  the  night.  My  fellow- 
students  laughed  at  me  then,  but  now  the  scales  are  turned. 
I  thought  it  a  hard  row  to  hoe,  but  a  rich  harvest  has  it  yielded 
me ;  and  you,  reader,  owe  to  this  same  cause,  no  small  por- 
tion of  whatever  delight  or  benefit,  my  lectures,  writings,  and 
examinations  may  afford  you.  Even  these  very  pages  are 
penned  after  a  delightful  feast  of  work.  And  one  of  the 
means  by  which  I  am  enabled  to  write  as  much  as  I  do — 
how  well  it  is  done  others  must  judge — is  the  interspersion  of 
composition  with  labor.  I  rise  in  the  morning  before  the  hens 
leave  their  resting  places,  and  engage  briskly  in  some  sort  of 
labor,  usually  agricultural,  till  I  have  worked  up  the  circula- 
tion to  a  high  pitch,  and  sent  the  blood  rushing  around  the 
system — in  which  manual  repast  I  take  more  pleasure  than 
even  in  my  subsequent  breakfast — and  then  go  to  my  desk  to 
put  on  paper  the  ideas  which  this  bodily  exercise  pours  in 
upon  my  mind.  Merely  as  a  means  of  promoting  authorship 
alone,  no  motive  would  induce  me  to  give  up  MANUAL  LABOR,* 
nor  has  probably. anything  aided  my  authorship  as  much  as 
the  purchase  of  a  small  plot  of  ground  on  which  to  work. 

*  Some  have  expressed  surprise  at  the  amount  of  mental  exertion  put 
forth  by  the  author.  Whether  it  is  remarkable  or  not,  its  secret  is  iu 
exercise  and  fasting  68. 


236  THE    MUSCLES. 

Nor  has  my  health  ever  sustained  as  much  injury  from  expo- 
sure, or  excessive  professional  application,  or  any  other  cause, 
as  from  that  deficiency  of  labor  which  some  twenty  years 
study  and  severe  professional  labor  have  partially  prevented 
my  taking.  Nor  has  anything  done  more  to  restore  the  health 
thus  impaired  than  a  return  to  work.  Pardon  this  personal 
allusion,  but  profit  by  the  lesson  it  teaches.  Reader,  be  your 
occupation  what  it  may,  pleasure  or  business,  mental  disci- 
pline or  professional  attainments,  take  this  advice — WORK  HARD 
AND  DAILY  FROM  TWO  TO  six  HOURS — and  you  will  accomplish 
more  study,  dispatch  more  business,  and  perform  and  enjoy 
more  in  whatever  you  engage,  ten  to  one,  than  by  perpet- 
ual application.  As  the  bow  always  bent  loses  its  elas- 
ticity, so  continued  application  either  exhausts  or  disorders 
the  brain  and  impedes  mental  energy  and  discipline,  which 
daily  labor  will  wonderfully  promote.  Ye  who  aspire  after 
renown,  WORK.  Ye  who  would  do  good,  WORK.  Ye  who 
would  fulfil  man's  great  terrestrial  destiny  of  being  HAPPY, 
LABOR  DAILY.  And  ye  who  are  too  proud  or  too  lazy  to  work, 
be  contented  to  suffer.  Good  enough  for  you  because  you 
violate  a  cardinal  law  of  your  being.  This  arraigns  for 
condemnation 

141.       THE    ANTI-WORKING    DOCTRINE    AND    PRACTICE. 

In  view  of  these  two  fundamental  laws  of  our  being — the 
great  demand  of  nature  for  muscular  action,  and  its  subservi- 
ency of  all  the  great  ends  of  life,  what  shall  we  say  of  those 
who  are  ABOVE  work  ?  Above  it  1  Rather,  BELOW  it ;  for 
depend  upon  it,  he  who  thinks  himself  too  good  to  work,  is  in 
reality  too  BAD.  No  man  or  woman  can  ever  be  above  labor 
without  being  above  his  nature  and  his  God.  Shall  the  Al- 
mighty Maker  of  all  things  not  only  work  the  six  days  of  the 
creation,*  but  "  from  everlasting  to  everlasting,"  and  shall 
man,  "  the  work  of  his  hands,"  be  above  his  Maker  ?  That 
human  being  is  no  man,  no  woman,  only  some  paltry  thing, 
who  is  too  proud  to  engage  in  manual  labor.  "  To  till  the 
earth  and  to  keep  it "  is  an  honor,  not  a  disgrace — is  to  be- 

*  Gen.  ii.  2,  3. 


ANTI-WORKERS.  237 

come  "  co-workers  with  God,"  not  a  menial.  And  he  or 
she  who  is  too  proud  to  labor,  ought,  in  all  consistency, 
to  be  too  proud  to  breathe  and  eat,  because  the  former 
is  quite  as  much  a  constitutional  function  and  demand  of 
nature  as  the  latter.  Ashamed  to  be  seen  at  work  ?  Aa 
well  be  ashamed  to  look  or  talk  !  Away  with  this  dogma 
that  labor  degrades.  It  elevates  and  ennobles.  Its  influence 
upon  the  mind  is  most  beneficial.  It  begets  a  resolution 
and  energy  of  character,  which  infuses  into  all  our  feelings 
and  conduct  an  indispensable  element  of  success.  Labor  re- 
quires a  perpetual  grappling  with  difficulties  and  overcoming 
of  obstacles,  which  inspire  and  cultivate  a  firmness  and  deter- 
mination imparted  by  nothing  else.  Hence  the  youth  brought 
up  to  do  no  work  while  young,  fails  to  cope  with  difficulties, 
but  yields  to  them  through  life,  and  of  course  accomplishes 
little.  This  explains  why  rich  youths  make  such  poor 
scholars,  and  shiftless  ninnies.  Rather  my  boy  would  be  a 
street  scavenger,  and  my  girls  kitchen  drudges,  than  brought 
up  not  to  labor  at  all,  for  no  kind  or  amount  of  work  is  as  bad 
as  either  idleness  or  no  labor.  Not  that  I  advocate  excessive 
toil,  of  which  presently,  but  SOME  sort  of  work.  Play  is  good 
for  children,  but  not  enough.  They  must  learn,  by  toiling 
through  those  opposing  obstacles  the  removal  of  which  consti- 
tutes labor,  to  grapple  in  with  all  kinds  of  difficulties  with  that 
determined  resolution  which  says  in  action  "  I  can  and  I  will," 
"  get  out  of  my  way  or  I'll  get  you  out."  The  greatest  curse 
now  impending  over  our  land  is  this  anti-working  fashion. 
Parents  seem  to  vie  with  each  other  who  shall  support  their 
children  at  the  greatest  remove  from  doing  anything.  And 
one  of  the  greatest  of  the  evils  of  that  monster  evil  slavery,  is 
the  idea  it  practically  fosters  and  insists  upon,  that  labor  is  the 
business  of  slaves,  and  degrading  to  master  and  son — the 
wrong  inflicted  on  the  slave,  great  as  it  often  is,  being  trifling 
compared  with  the  depravity  and  suffering  which  this  anti- 
working  tendency  does  so  much  to  rivet  upon  the  white 
population. 

Yet  all  anti- workers  have  their  reward.     Produce  me  the 
man  thus  brought  up,  who  did  not  turn  out  to  be  both  inef- 


738  THE   MUSCLES. 

ficient  and  vicious.  This  explains  the  prevalence  of  vice 
among  the  rich,  and  at  the  south,  the  fact  of  which  is  palpa- 
ble. If  I  had  the  wealth  of  Astor  my  children  should  work 
Not  that  I  would  force  them  to  it,  for  this  might  make  them 
hate  it,  but  that  I  would  persuade  them  to  it,  and  enamor  them 
of  it,  so  that  they  should  labor  from  choice. 

And  those  dear,  delicate,  fashionable,  city  ladies — generally 
as  homely  as  hedge  fences,  simply  because  they  do  not  work, 
and  of  course  become  sickly,  and  therefore  "  ugly  looking" — 
so  extra  exquisite  that  they  must  never  soil  their  soft  hands 
by  doing  the  least  thing  about  house — too  nice,  and  deli- 
cate,  and  refined,  and  genteel,  and  senseless,  besides  much 
more,  to  be  so  vulgar — may  possibly  take  a  fashionable 
promenade  once  in  a  while,  and  an  occasional  "  airing"  in 
the  easiest  riding  carriage  that  can  be  made.  So  very  gen- 
teel, they  must  ride  to  church,  though  only  two  or  three, 
blocks  off!  Consummate  simpletons  ;  don't  you  wish  you  had 
a  patent  machine,  by  which  your  servants  could  chew  your 
food  and  pump  breath  into  you  without  any  effort  of  your  own, 
so  as  to  place  you  at  a  still  greater  remove  from  labor !  And 
your  extra  delicate  and  helpless  children — don't  you  wish 
they  could  lay  down  and  lie  there  all  their  lives,  and  save  the 
trouble  even  of  eating  by  letting  pap  drop  into  their  open 
mouths  and  run  down  their  tiny  throats  of  itself! 

And  poor  but  proud  pretenders  to  gentility,  who  have 
scarcely  enough  to  eat,  yet  would  fain  make  a  genteel  ap- 
pearance— starving  the  kitchen  to  feed  the  parlor — if  acci- 
dentally caught  in  kitchen  habiliments,  must  blush,  and  apolo- 
gize, and  falsify  outright  by  pretending  that  their  servant  has 
just  left,  and  they  had  to  prepare  dinner— out  upon  your 
proud  nothingness.  Have  to  work,  yet  lie  to  hide  it !  This 
anti-working  pride  is  contemptible  in  the  rich,  but  in  you,  in- 
tolerable.  Beg  pardon  for  obeying  the  laws  of  your  being, 
ha !  What  greater  sign  of  littleness !  Go  away,  ye  toadstool 
grandees,  into  merited  insignificance  and  infamy.  Come,  ye 
laborers,  inherit  the  blessings  conferred  by  toil.  I  do  not 
wish  such  perverters  of  their  natures  had  no  muscles,  but  a 
short  paralysis  of  them,  so  as  to  enforce  their  practical  value, 


THE    DIGNITY    OF    LABOR.  239 

would  be  good  enough  for  them.  Indeed,  their  partial  paralysis 
always  follows  their  protracted  inaction.  Muscles  used  but 
little  decline  till  they  become  so  weak  that  exertion,  otherwise 
a  source  of  exquisite  delight,  now  becomes  irksome,  and  fa- 
ligue  follows  trifling  exercise.  Such  are  most  heartily  to  be 
pitied,  yet  their  punishment  is  just  and  self-induced  7« 

142.       THE    DIGNITY    OF    LABOR,    AND    RENDERING    IT    AGREEABLE. 

In  view  of  this  constitutional  demand  for  labor,  what  be- 
comes  of  the  idea  that  laborers  are  therefore  inferior  ?  Blown 
to  atoms  by  a  blast  from  nature's  ordinances.  The  honor- 
ables  of  the  earth  are  its  laborers.  Nothing  is  mean  which 
nature  requires,  but  on  the  other  hand,  worthy  of  universal 
commendation.  What  she  has  anointed  and  crowned  let  not 
man  despise.  This  idea  that  labor  is  degrading  had  its  origin 
in  kingly  and  feudal  times  and  institutions,  of  lordlings  and 
serfs.  Would  that  it  had  never  been  imported  to  our  repub- 
lican shores.  Is  it  not  in  the  teeth  and  eyes  of  every  princi- 
ple of  republicanism  ?  Yet  our  cardinal  doctrine  of  equality  is 
fast  erasing  it,  and  elevating  labor  to  that  post  of  honor  assigned 
it  by  nature.  True  REPUBLICANS  will  never  think  the  less  of 
those  who  labor,  and  those  who  do  should  emigrate.  Our 
country,  our  institutions  are  not  congenial  with  their  doctrines 
or  practices,  The  old  world  is  already  consecrated  to  aris- 
tocracy and  caste,  this  to  equality.  Go  home  to  England  or 
India  ye  purse-proud  labor-despisers ;  here  you  are  strangers 
in  a  foreign  land,  for  our  institutions  conflict  with  your  prac- 
tices. Go  where  you  can  find  congeniality,  and  leave  us  who 
love  equality  to  the  peaceable  possession  of  this  our  home. 
Here  you  are  eyesores,  and  stand  in  the  light  of  those  to 
whom  this  land  of  right  belongs.  Touching  this  matter  of 
caste  as  connected  with  labor,  Miss  Charlotte  E.  Beecher  justly 
observes : — 

"Let  any  woman  who  esteems  herself  in  the  higher  classes  of 
society,  put  the  case  as  her  own,  and  imagine  that  her  son,  or  bro- 
ther, is  about  to  marry  a  young  lady,  whose  character  and  education 
are  every  way  lovely  and  unexceptionable,  but  who,  it  appears,  is  a 
seamstress,  or  a  nurse,  or  a  domestic,  and  how  few  are  there,  who 
will  not  be  conscious  of  the  opposing  principle  of  caste.  But  sup- 


240  THE    MUSCULAR   SYSTEM. 

pose  the  young  lady  to  be  one  who  has  been  earning  her  livelihood 
by  writing  poetry  and  love  stories,  or  who  has  lived  all  her  days  in 
utter  idleness,  and  how  suddenly  the  feelings  are  changed !  Now, 
all  the  comfort  and  happiness  of  society  depend  upon  having  that 
work  properly  performed,  which  is  done  by  nurses,  seamstresses, 
chambermaids,  and  cooks  ;  and  so  long  as  this  kind  of  work  is  held 
to  be  degrading,  and  those  who  perform  it  allowed  to  grow  up  igno- 
rant and  vulgar,  and  then  are  held  down  by  the  prejudices  of  caste, 
every  woman  will  use  the  greatest  efforts,  and  undergo  the  greatest 
privations,  to  escape  from  the  degraded  and  discreditable  position 
And  this  state  of  society  is  now,  by  the  natural  course  of  things, 
bringing  a  just  retribution  on  the  classes  who  cherish  it.  Domestics 
are  forsaking  the  kitchen,  and  thronging  to  the  workshop  and  manu- 
factory, and  mainly  under  the  influence  of  the  principles  of  caste ; 
while  the  family  state  suffers  keenly  from  the  loss.  Meantime  the 
daughters  of  wealth  have  their  faculties  and  their  sensibilities  de- 
veloped, while  all  the  household  labor,  which  would  equally  develop 
their  physical  powers,  and  save  from  ill  health,  is  turned  off  to 
hired  domestics  or" a  slaving  mother.  The  only  remedy  for  this  evil 
is,  securing  a  proper  education  for  all  classes  and  making  productive 
labor  honorable  by  having  all  classes  engage  in  it." 

One  probable  reason  why  labor  is  despised  is,  that  it  is 
generally  required  in  such  excess  as  to  be  extremely  onerous, 
feuch  excess  is  injurious,  and  should  never  be  required  or 
yielded.  On  the  other  hand,  we  should  render  it  as  delightful 
in  fact  as  nature  has  rendered  it  by  constitution  l39,  thus  sec- 
onding her  evident  intention.  Nor  should  laborers  be  required 
to  strike  another  blow  after  just  comfortably  tired.  We  should 
work  FOR  PLAY,  and  only  when  to  labor  is  pleasure '  This 
brings  up  for  consideration 

, 

143        THE    AMOUNT   OP   EXERCISE    REQUIRED. 

From  four  to  six  hours  of  vigorous  muscular  exercise  is  the 
least  compatible  with  first-rate  health.  Excellent  constitutions 
may  endure  close  confinement  for  years,  yet  must  run  down 
continually,  and  finally  break.  A  lower  degree  of  health 
may  be  preserved  on  less  exercise,  but  as  the  order  of  nature 
is  to  spend  from  six  to  ten  hours  daily  in  the  open  air93,  so  the 
perfection  of  health  requires  a  great  amount  of  muscular  ac- 
tion, and  the  more,  generally  speaking,  the  better,  provided  it 
is  of  the  right  kind.  My  own  convictions  are,  that  about  four 
hours  brisk  labor  per  day  will  suffice  for  exercise,  which 


DAA'CING    FOR    EXERCISE.  2'il 

amount,  well  expended  by  all — rich  and  poor — will  just  about 
supply  the  human  family  with  the  comforts,  if  not  also  the 
luxuries  of  life,  artificial  wants  and  extravagances  of  course 
excepted.  How  admirable  this  adaptation  of  the  amount  of 
labor  requisite  for  health  to  that  required  to  provide  man  with 
necessaries  of  life.  But  we  shall  present  the  law  here  in- 
volved hereafter. 

In  the  light  of  this  required  amount  of  exercise,  what  shall 
we  say  of  those  merchants,  clerks,  lawyers,  students,  and  the 
sedentary  classes  generally,  who  confine  themselves  to  their 
offices,  desks,  and  books,  from  morning  till  night,  year  in  and 
year  out,  scarcely  going  out  of  doors,  except  to  and  from  their 
business,  and  then  TAKING  AN  OMNIBUS  !  If  these  principles 
of  exercise  were  put  in  practice,  very  few  city  conveyances 
would  be  required  or  patronized.  One  would  think  that  our 
sedentaries,  starved  almost  to  death  for  exercise,  would  em- 
brace every  opportunity  to  take  it,  walking  at  least  to  and 
from  their  business,  sawing  their  own  wood,  and  the  like. 
Yet  fashion  requires  that  they  hire  horses  to  do  the  former, 
and  servants  to  do  the  latter.  Such  fashions  I  despise,  practi- 
cally and  theoretically. 

144.       DANCING    A3    EXERCISE. 

How  much  exercise  given  individuals  should  take,  depends 
on  circumstances  to  be  determined  by  each  individual  for 
himself,  and  varies  with  existing  capabilities  of  endurance, 
which  are  easily  determined  by  the  feelings  at  the  time.  As 
unperverted  appetite  constitutes  an  infallible  guide  to  the  re- 
quired quantity  of  food69,  so  muscular  appetite,  unless  rendered 
abnormal  by  inaction,  will  inform  us  when,  and  how  much 
exercise  we  require  for  the  time  being,  and  when  we  are 
taking  it  in  excess,  or  at  improper  times.  Excessive  and 
also  fitful  or  violent  exercise,  especially,  for  the  sedentary,  is 
injurious.  Such  should  exercise  DELIBERATELY  as  well  as  eat 
slowly,  else  exhaustion  supervenes  before  a  due  degree  of 
exercise  is  obtained. 

Yet  some  are  so  situated  that  to  tak«  sufficient  exercise  is 
exceedingly  difficult.  Though  such  should  change  their 
21 


242  THE    MUSCLES. 

business,  because  exercise  should  be  a  paramount  considera- 
tion, yet  they  will  find  in  dancing  a  partial  substitute.  Not 
that  I  recommend  this  amusement  as  generally  conducted, 
but  unequivocally  condemn  it.  To  give  reasons  would  be  to 
digress.  Though  this  dancing  but  seldom,  and  then  all 
'night  in  hot  and  illy-ventilated  rooms,  and  then  going  out 
exhausted  and  exposed  to  colds,  together  with  most  of  the 
associations  of  the  ball-room,  are  most  pernicious ;  yet  for  our 
.  sedentaries  to  select  their  company,  and  meet  at  each  ofner's 
houses  in  the  afternoon  or  evening,  always  avoiding  over  exer- 
tion, and  retiring  by  nine  or  ten  o'clock,  if  practiced  often, 
would  supply  in  part  that  deficiency  of  muscular  action  which 
causes  so  many  to  sicken  and  die — would  restore  many  an 
invalid  now  perishing  by  inches  with  pure  inanition,  and  pre- 
serve and  even  re-invigorate  the  health  of  many  now  going  into 
a  decline'.  Dancing  MIGHT  be,  yet  rarely  is,  so  conducted  as 
to  prove  eminently  beneficial,  without  occasioning  any  evil. 
In  fact,  it  is  founded  in  the  nature  of  man,  and  can  therefore 
be  turned  to  a  most  excellent  practical  account  in  a  great 
variety  of  ways.  To  sedentary  young  women,  this  form  of 
exercise  is  particularly  recommended.  Yet  I  would  have 
all  dance  to  their  own  music,  vocal  or  instrumental,  or  both, 
and  also  in  company  with  their  parents  and  elders.  Young 
people  should  never  dance  exclusively  by  themselves.  Yet 
our  present  purpose  being  to  point  out  to  the  sedentary  a  fea- 
sible mode  of  taking  exercise,  to  guard  against  evils  too  often 
associated  with  it  is  digressive. 

Besides  the  sedentary,  those  laborers  who  sit  or  stand  much 
in  one  posture,  will  find  that  change  and  diversity  of  manual 
action  secured  by  dancing  to  dispel  fatigue  and  promote 
health,'  and  perhaps  even  render  unhealthy  occupations 
healthy.  Seamstresses,  goldsmiths,  shoe  makers,  and  many 
artisans  of  like  occupations,  who  have  no  substitute,  should 
dance  daily  as  much  as  eat ;  and  students  will  find  it  promo- 
tive  alike  of  health  and  of  the  mental  action  and  therefore  dis- 
cipline *°r  they  seek. 


CHILDREN    REQUIRE    EXERCISE.  243 

145.       EXERCISE    DOUBLY    REQUISITE    FOR    THE    YOI  NG. 

See  how  briskly  and  almost  incessantly  lambs  frisk,  calves 
run,  colts  prance,  kittens  play,  and  the  young  of -all  animals 
exert  their  muscles.  Nor  do  children  form  an  exception  to 
this  law.  What  mother  or  nurse  has  not  been  surprised,  if 
not  provoked  with  their  incessant  activity  and  noise  from 
morning  to  night,  year  after  year,  from  the  cradle  till  they 
take  leave  of  the  parental  roof.  Nor  can  this  action  possibly 
be  prevented.  Try  your  best  to  keep  them  still  and  you  will 
fail.  To  prevent  action  is  as  impossible  as  to  prevent  their 
breathing,  and  as  injurious  as  impossible.  This  restless 
activity  is  interwoven  throughout  their  whole  natures,  and  for 
the  best  of  reasons.  Their  growth  being  rapid,  the  materials 
for  which  are  deposited  by  the  blood,  of  course  their  digestion, 
respiration,  circulation,  and  perspiration  must  be  proportion- 
ally active.  All  these  functions  exercise  promotes  l38,  and 
thereby  augments  growth — is  indeed  indispensable  to  it. 
Swing  up  an  arm  or  foot  so  as  to  prevent  its  action,  and  see 
how  it  shrinks,  and  becomes  enfeebled  and  diseased.  But 
restoring  its  action  enlarges,  restores,  and  strengthens  it.  Sc 
of  the  system  as  a  whole.  To  prevent  the  activity  of  chil- 
dren, besides  being  the  worst  purgatory  that  can  be  inflicted 
upon  them — and  I  pity  from  my  inmost  soul  those  dear  suf- 
ferers who  are  shut  up  arid  required  to  keep  still — prevents 
the  development  of  bone,  muscle,  nerve,  and  brain,  and  thereby 
weakens  every  one  of  their  powers,  mental  and  physical,  and 
thus  becomes  the  worst  curse  which  can  be  forced  upon  them. 
For  one  I  rejoice  in  the  gambolings  of  children,  noisy  though 
they  be,  because  augmented  health  and  mentality  are  the  pro- 
ducts. Rather  sacrifice  my  own  temporary  convenience  on 
the  altar  of  so  great  a  good  to  them.  Nor  will  my  conscience 
allow  me  to  interdict  what  their  highest  good  requires.  Did 
nature  implant  this  perpetual  restlessness  to  be  suppressed  ? 
We  fight  against  her  requirements  at  our  and  their  peril. 
Many  a  mother  has  followed  her  children  to  their  graves 
because  she  broke  down  their  constitutions  by  interdicting 
their  play.  Rather  promote  than  retard  this  demand  of  their 
natures,  Nor  fear,  much  as  they  will  play  if  allowed,  that 


244  THE    MUSCLES, 

they  will  run  loo  much.  After  they  have  been  unduly  kept 
in  for  a  long  time,  they  may  perhaps  play  beyond  their 
strength  at  first,  hut  not  long.  It  is  hardly  possible  for  them 
to  overdo.  Not  one  in  scores  of  thousands  ever  does  this,  but 
nearly  every  child  in  civilized  life  is  more  or  less  enfeebled 
and  diseased  by  playing  too  little,  together  with  over  con- 
finement. Parents  should  make  provision  for  such  play  as 
much  as  for  their  meals,  and  try  to  promote,  never  retard  it. 

"  But  I  cannot  possibly  stand  their  perpetual  uproar,"  re- 
joins a  nervous  mother.  Then  turn  them  out  of  doors.  Nor 
keep  them  in  for  cold  or  wet.  Wash  them  all  over,  mornings, 
or  even  their  feet,  nights,  in  cold  water  1I0,  and  neither  cold  or 
wet  will  hurt,  but  only  benefit  them.  Their  racing  will  con- 
vert  both  into  instrumentalities  of  health  92  IM  12°  125.  Do  not 
be  too  tender  of  them.  Confinement  kills  scores  where  expo- 
sure kills  one,  and  even  then  the  exposure  would  be  harmless 
but  for  previous  confinement.  There  are  weathers  not  suitable 
for  them  to  be  out,  yet  then  they  will  want  to  stay  in. 

"  And  what  shall  we  do  with  them  then  ?"  asks  another 
mother.  Have  a  play-room  under  cover  set  apart  expressly  for 
them,  filled  with  facilities  for  play.  It  need  not  be  warmed  ; 
they  will  keep  themselves  duly  warm  by  exercise.  No  house 
should  be  without  its  children's  play-room  any  more  than 
without  a  kitchen  or  bed-room.  And  such  rooms  should  be 
large  and  airy,  and  lighted,  if  possible,  from  the  top  so  as  to 
save  window  glass,  or  else  furnished  with  inside  shutters. 
Whole  flocks  of  children  of  different  ages,  should  be  turned 
out  to  roam  over  hill  and  dale  unrestrained,  the  elder  succoring 
the  younger,  or  rather,  all  under  the  care  of  teachers  who, 
from  every  flower,  and  mineral,  and  production  of  nature  met  in 
their  rambles,  shall  teach  them  nature,  her  operations,  and  her 
laws  ™  47° 483  484  m  526  £37  •*  5»  «7.  Whatever  you  do  for  children 
or  what  leave  undone,  do  this: — GIVE  THEM  THEIR  PERPETUAL 
FILL  OF  EXERCISE.  In  addition  to  play 

146.   CHILDREN  AND  YOUTH  SHOULD  LABOR,  BUT  NOT  TO  EXCESS. 

One  of  the  reasons  for  this  has  already  been  given  14°.  I» 
inures  them  to  overcoming  obstacles.  It  also  furnishes  an 


JUVENILE    EXERCISE.  245 


exercise  of  muscle  more  severe  than  play,  and  trains  them  to 
habits  of  labor  so  essential  to  their  health  and  happiness 
through  life138133140.  They  should  also  practice  rendering 
themselves  serviceable  to  others  while  young.  And  then  there 
is  something  in  labor  which  hardens  the  whole  system,  brain 
included,  rendering  it  compact  and  firm,  and  capable  of  en- 
during what  those  not  inured  to  work  can  never  sustain. 
Especially  should  labor  be  rendered  INVITING  to  them,  never 
repulsive.  If  possible,  induce  them  to  work  from  choice,  not 
compulsion.  This  can  be  easily  effected  in  a  variety  of  ways. 
One  is  by  giving  boys  a  parcel  of  land  and  letting  them  plant, 
tend,  and  harvest  on  shares,  and  have  the  avails.  This  will 
also  teach  them  the  value  of  money,  by  showing  them  how 
much  labor  it  requires  to  earn  it.  Another  way  is  by  giving 
them  tools  and  a  workshop,  and  encouraging  them  to  make 
sleds,  wagons,  Nkites,  boxes,  and  what  playthings  they  want, 
as  well  as  tinkering ^tjp  other  things  required,  of  which  more 
under  Constructiveness  in^th^nrext^votuTne:  By  a  variety  of 
kindred  devices  they  can  be  induced  to  labor  from  love  of  it. 

Yet  I  protest  against  this  subjecting  young  children  to  ex- 
cessive and  perpetual  toil.  As  soon  as  or  before  they  enter 
their  teens,  parents  say  to  them  in  actions,  if  not  in  words,  "  I 
have  toiled  hard  and  long  for  you,  and  now  you  must  pay  me 
off,  principal  and  interest,  by  working  still  harder  for  me." 
But  let  such  remember  that  children  have  much  more  than 
paid  their  own  way  all  along  from  birth,  in  the  pleasure  they 
have  occasioned,  and  instead  of  owing,  have  actually  brought 
their  parents  in  debt,  or  rather,  both  are  indebted  to  their  com- 
mon parent  for  the  mutual  pleasure  they  have  occasioned 
each  other. 

Children  are  also  put  to  trades  too  early,  and  bound  out  to 
severe  taskmasters,  obliged  to  work  hard  early  and  late  for 
six  or  seven  years,  and  often  poorly  fed  and  lodged  at  that, 
thus  expending  in  the  services  of  their  master  those  energies 
required  for  the  development  of  their  bodies  and  brains.  Many 
mechanics  make  it  a  point  of  economy— though  it  is  the  worst 
kind  of  robbery — to  get  much  of  their  work  done  by  appren- 
tices. The  present  apprentice  system  is  abominable — utterly 


246  THE    MUSCLES. 

anti-republican  and  unjust,  and  often  wickedly  cruel,  as  many 
readers  know  by  sad  experience.  Its  object  should  be  to  teach 
the  trade,  not  to  enrich  the  employer.  That  well  learned — 
and  by  this  time  the  trouble  of  teaching  and  keeping  will  bo 
amply  recompensed  by  the  labor  of  the  apprentice — they 
should  be  allowed  the  full  avails  of  their  labor,  instead  of  be- 
ing compelled  to  work  hard  for  several  years  for  nothing  but 
their  food  and  clothing,  and  then  thrown  empty  upon  the  world 
at  twenty-one,  whereas,  if  they  had  been  paid  all,  or  even 
half,  the  nett  profits  of  their  labor,  they  might  have  had  a 
home  of  their  own,  and  capital  with  which  to  commence  busi- 
ness, and  more  than  all,  GOOD  CONSTITUTIONS,  now  well  nigh 
ruined  by  over-working  while  growing.  Many  children  and 
youth,  while  growing  rapidly,  are  lazy,  especially  those  who 
mature  late,  because  they  require  all  their  vitality  28  for  growth, 
and  to  give  them  strong  constitutions ;  nor  is  it  expedient  nor 
right  to  compel  such  to  labor  much  beyond  what  they  them- 
selves prefer,  lest  they  should  expend  in  labor  those  vital  ener- 
gies required  for  growth.  Nor  need  you  fear  that  they  will 
be  as  lazy  after  they  have  attained  their  stature  and  maturity 
— after  their  reservoir  of  vitality  is  full  and  overflowing — for 
their  very  indolence  now  will  contribute  to  their  efficiency 
then  by  increasing  their  health  and  strengthening  their  con- 
stitutions, thus  giving  them  the  greater  surplus  for  muscular 
and  mental  labor.  Yet  we  would  have  all  children  worl> 
every  day  after  they  are  ten  years  old. 

These  principles  apply  equally  to  putting  youth  into  stores 
and  offices  too  young.  And  the  smarter  they  are  the  worse. 
Slim,  spare,  flabby,  I  see  their  morning  sun  about  to  pass  into 
an  early  cloud,  if  not  set  in  the  darkness  of  premature  death ! 
Without  abundant  EXERCISE  they  cannot  possibly  have  strong 
muscles  or  vigorous  health,  and  without  these  can  never  do, 
or  become,  or  enjoy,  much.  Many  readers  can  testify  that 
their  apprenticeship  broke  down  their  constitution  and  im- 
paired all  their  capabilities,  all  their  enjoyments  for  life. 

But  worst  of  all  is  this  compelling'  young  children  and  youth 
to  work  steadily  in  the  factory  ten,  twelve,  or  more  hours 
daily,  year  after  year  without  vacation,  or  any  time  to  play 


LABOR    FOR    CHlLu^fiK.  247 


or  recreate,  or  near  enough  even  to  eat  and  sleep.  See  how- 
pale,  slim,  haggard,  and  jaded  out  they  all  look.  Give  them 
a  six-months  play-day  and  see  how  it  will  improve  their  health, 
and  looks,  and  minds.  And  I  actually  sigh  for  my  country  in 
view  of  the  multitudes  of  our  youth  now  subjected  to  this  de- 
teriorating practice — so  much  so,  that  I  mourn  instead  of 
rejoice  over  our  mechanical  prosperity.  The  farm  is  the 
place  for  children.  What  if  factory  labor  is  light,  it  is  con- 
fining, and  prevents  muscular  exercise.  Even  excessive  labor 
is  less  injurious.  After  the  growth  is  completed  and  the  con- 
stitution every  way  consolidated,  factory  labor  is  less  injuri- 
ous, but  I  would  work  desperately  myself  rather  than  let  my 
children  be  confined  to  the  factory. 

Thus  far  our  remarks  have  been  applied  to  boys.  Yet  to 
girls  such  application  is  quite  as  important,  if  not  even  more 
so.  Girls  especially  should  never  be  confined  either  to  the 
chair  in  sewing,  or  the  factory-room,  for  reasons  given  in  our 
work  on  "  Maternity."  Women  may  sit  and  sow  or  knit  after 
they  are  thirty,  and  the  more  the  older  they  grow,  but  no  girl 
should  learn  any  female  trade  requiring  her  to  sit  as  in  sewing, 
folding  books,  coloring  prints,  or  observe  any  other  fixed  pos- 
ture, or  confine  herself  in  the  factory,  till  after  thirty,  on  pain 
of  a  broken  constitution  and  shortened  life,  yet  elderly  women 
may  sew,  tend  machinery,  and  the  like,  with  comparative 
impunity.  Nor  should  young,  growing  girls  be  confined  to 
lugging  and  tending  infants. 

If  asked  at  what  age  children  and  youth  may  be  put  down 
to  hard  labor  without  much  injury — excessive  labor  is  inju- 
rious at  any  period  of  life — the  following  anecdote  contains 
the  answer.  While  riding  in  a  stage  with  its  proprietor,  who 
keeps  several  hundred  horses  in  constant  employ,  all  of  which 
he  buys  himself,  I  asked  him  what  kinds  of  horses  he  pre- 
ferred in  making  his  purchases.  He  answered  "  Balky  ones  !" 
"  Why  ?"  I  again  inquired  ?  "  Because  their  fractiousness 
prevented  their  being  used  much  till  fully  grown  and  hard- 
ened," he  replied.*  I  again  inquired  "  At  what  age  horses 
might  be  put  down  to  hard  work  without  injury  ?"  "  Not  till 
eight  years  old  ;  they  ought  never  to  be  broken  earlier,  and 


248  THE    MUSCLES. 


then  they  will  wear  like  iron  till  they  are  thirty  ;  you-  can 
hardly  wear  them  out,"  was  his  answer.  He  would  thug 
have  one  quarter  of  their  lives  spent  simply  in  GROWING  AND 
MATURING,  as  they  will  much  more  than  make  up  this  lost 
time  by  extra  endurance  afterwards.  Only  a  few  days  pre- 
vious I  had  rode  after  an  extra  smart  horse,  twenty-three 
years  old,  whose  skittishness  prevented  her  being  used  till 
about  eight. 

These  facts,  palpable  to  all  who  will  open  their  eyes  upon 
them,  illustrate  a  universal  law  which  requires  that  nearly  or 
quite  one  fourth  of  the  life  of  man  should  be  spent  in  the 
formation  and  development  of  the  physical  powers.  Youth 
should  work  only  for  play  till,  besides  having  all  the  vitality 
requisite  for  growth,  they  become  full  and  run  over  with  sur 
plus  animal  life,  so  that  they  almost  ache  for  something  to  do 
in  order  to  expend  it.  When  this  period  arrives,  be  it  earlier 
or  later,  just  give  them  a  chance  to  do  something  for  them- 
selves and  they  will  not  be  lazy.  Instead,,  they  will  take 
hold  of  the  affairs  of  life  "  with  an  appetite,"  and  accomplish 
wonders,  whereas  compelling  them  to  labor  too  young  is  the 
way  of  all  others  to  make  them  hate  work,  and  turn  idlers  as 
soon  as  out  of  their  time.  To  put  children  to  hard  work  at 
eight  or  nine  is  to  wear  them  out  at  thirty  or  forty,  but  if  you 
would  have  them  live  to  be  a  hundred,  give  them  the  reins 
till  they  are  twenty  or  upwards,  and  allow  them  to  be  boys 
and  girls,  instead  of  making  them  young  ladies  and  gentle- 
men. But  we  shall  touch  a  kindred  point,  under  Approba- 
tiveness,  in  Vol.  II. 

147.       EARLY    SCHOOLING    ESPECIALLY    INJURIOUS. 

TLie  injuries  consequent  on  the  vitiated  air  of  school-rooms, 
has  already  been  pointed  out ".  Those  of  confinement  and 
inaction  are  scarcely  less,  and  often  greater.  This  demand  for 
vigorous  and  almost  constant  exercise  in  children  is  IMPERIOUS, 
and  its  suppression  fatal.  Apply  your  finger  to  their  pulse. 


EARLY    SCHOOLING.  249 


Mark  that  rush,  rush,  rush  of  blood  simply  to  supply  the 
hand.  This  blood  is  freighted  with  the  materials  for  growth, 
and  must  be  much  more  vigorous  in  children  than  adults,  be- 
cause the  former  grow  as  well  as  live.  Respiration  must  also 
keep  pace  with  circulation,  and  exercise  with  both. ;  so  that 
confinement  in  school-rooms  enfeebles  the  body,  and  thereby 
the  mind.  How  perfectly  miserable  probably  every  reader 
has  been  upon  the  school-house  bench — a  sure  sign  of  violated 
law6.  But  when  playspells  and  noonings  came,  did  not  we  run, 
and  jump,  and  hallo,  and  breathe  deep  and  fast,  and  thus  send 
the  boiling  blood  coursing  throughout  the  system  freighted  with 
the  materials  of  life  and  growth  ?  Besides,  how  much  faster 
we  learned  after  them  than  before  ?  The  brain  is  the  last  por- 
tion of  the  system  to  form  and  mature.  Hence,  if  youth  should 
not  be  put  to  hand- work  till  twenty  or  upwards,  they  should 
not  be  confined  to  hard  study  till  even  a  later  period.  Many 
a  dull  boy  has  made  ar  smart jnan=4nere1n  proportion  than  from 
among  the  extra  smart.  Excessive  parental  love  and  vanity 
too  often  try  every  possible  method  to  render  their  children 
prodigies  while  young,  yet  confining  a  child  in  school  both 
prevents  the  manufacture  of  vitality,  and  then  diverts  what 
little  there  is  from  the  body  to  the  head,  and  thus  debilitates 
both.  This  green-house  method  of  forcing  premature  develop- 
ment weakens  all  their  powers- while  alive  and  hastens  death. 
But  as  we  shall  recur  to  the  evils  of  precocity  hereafter,  we 
dismiss  this  matter  here,  simply  adding  that  children  should 
be  taught  mairtly  while  on  foot  and  in  motion,  and  that  the 
first  care  of  parents  should  be  to  build  a  deep  and  broad  foun- 
dation for  mental  greatness  in  powerful  constitutions  and 
strong  muscles,  and  THEN  proceed  with  the  superstructure. 

In  general,  nothing  is  lost,  but  everything  is  gained,  by  not 
sending  them  to.  school  till  they  are  twelve,  fifteen,  or  eighteen 
vears  old,  and  a  quarter's  play  will  often  save  many  quarter's 
sickness.  But  whether  they  go  to  school  early  or  late,  much 
or  little,  they  should  not  be  required  to  sit  over  half  or  three- 
fourths  of  an  hour  at  a  time,  when  playspells  should  relieve 
their  restlessness  and  sharpen  up  their  minds  for  renewed  ac- 
tion. And  the  longer  these  playspells  the  better.  But  as  our 


250         THE  BRAIN  AND  NERVOUS  SYSTEM. 

present  object  is  to  show  the  importance  of  juvenile  exercise, 
not  education — a  point  elsewhere  discussed,  we  drop  it  with 
the  remark  that  schooling  should  never  curtail  play,  because 
i>iuscular  action  does  them  more  good  than  books. 


CHAPTER  V, 

THE    BRAIN    AND    NERVOUS    SYSTEM. 


SECTION  1. 

POSITION,  FUNCTION,  AND  STRUCTURE  OF  THE  BRAIN. 
148.       REQUISITION    FOR    SOME    MENTAL    FUNCTION    AND    ORGAN 

HUT  suppose  all  those  beautiful  and  perfect  contrivances  al- 
ready described  of  stomach,  liver,  intestines,  heart,  lungs,  skin, 
bones,  and  muscles — the  entire  man — complete  and  in  perfect 
order,  all  would,  be  utterly  useless  but  for  some  means  of 
MANIFESTING  MENTALITY.  The  mind  is  the  man  19,  and  its  meas- 
ure his  measure.  This  alone  renders  man  both  immortal  and 
divine — alone  crowns  and  allies  him  to  angels  and  to  God,  alone 
endows  humanity  with  its  only  wreath  of  glory,  its  only  instru- 
mentality of  enjoyment.  It  is  the  mind  alone  which  enjoys,  and 
since  happiness  is  the  great  object  of  existence,  of  course  our 
enjoyments  are  proportionate  to  its  amount  and  right  exercise  6. 
For  its  sake — to  subserve  its  function — all  other  organs  and 
functions  were  erected,  and  hence  the  one  end  of  life  should 
be  to  promote  its  action. 

But  this  mentality  must  have  its  ORGAN.  Nature's  univer- 
sal motto  is — an  organ  for  every  function.  As  digestion,  cir- 
culation, motion,  hearing,  and  each  of  the  other  physical  func- 
tions are  performed  by  means  of  organs,  shall  not  this  crown- 
ing function  of-  all  have  its  organ  also  ?  It  has  ;  and  that 
organ  is  the  brain — an  apparatus  every  way  perfectly  adapted 
to  execute  the  mental  function?. 


LOCATION  AND  STRUCTURE  OF  THE  BRAIN.       251 

Fully  to  prove  that  the  brain  is  the  organ  of  the  mind,  is 
not  our  present  purpose  16,  but  its  adaptation  to  this  end.  This 
will  be  seen  in 

149.   THE  LOCATION  AND  STRUCTURE  OF  THE  BRAIN. 

"  This  dome  of  thought,  this  palace  of  the  soul"  occupies 
the  cavity  formed  by  the  skull,  and  of  course  constitutes 
much  of  that  crown  of  humanity — the  head.  Being  extremely 
delicate,  it  is  protected  by  the  skull,  the  spherical  form  of  which 
is  admirably  calculated  to  guard  it  against  injury,  break  the 
force  of  contusions,  and  prevent  fractures.  Beneath  this 
skull  is  a  tough,  hard  membrane,  called  the  dura  mater,  which 
envelopes  the  brain,  and  dipping  down  lengthwise  through  its 
middle  portion,  partially  separates  it  into  two  halves,  called 
hemispheres.  Under  this  is  a  thin  lubricating  film  called  the 
arachnoid,  or  spider's- web  membrane,  and  below  it  again  is  still 
another  fine-textured^va^culaonembrane,  which  dips  down  into 
all  the  folds  of  the  brain,  and  is  perfectly  full  of  blood-vessels 
and  nerves,  being  to  the  brain,  probably,  what  the  skin  is  to  the 
body,  the  arachnoid  membrane  corresponding  to  the  rete-mu- 
cosum  of  the  skin,  as  the  dura  mater  does  to  the  epidermis. 
The  same  treble  structure  was  also  described  as  belonging  to 
the  heart,  lungs,  stomach,  intestines,  etc. 

The  accompanying  engraving  represents  the  general  struc- 
ture of  this  organ.  Its  division  into  hemispheres  by  the  falx 
or  scythe  shape  process  of  the  dura  mater  is  represented  by  the 
fissure  from  G.  to  G.  Those  crooked  foldings  called  convolu- 
tions, not  unlike  the  folded  structure  of  the  intestines  and  lungs, 
doubtless  subserves  a  similar  purpose,  namely,  of  allowing  a 
far  greater  amount  of  surface  to  be  folded  up  in  a  small  com- 
pass88, so  as  to  produce  a  corresponding  increase  of  power 
without  much  increase  of  bulk.  Else  the  brain  must  have 
been  enormous.  And  this  conclusion  is  strengthened  by  the 
fact,  that  in  inferior  animals  the.se  convolutions  are  barely 
perceptible,  while,  as  we  rise  in  the  scale  of  mental  capability, 
these  convolutions  become  larger  and  deeper  till  we  arrive  at 
man.  And  even  in  the  human  brain,  those  who  are  the  most 
talented  have  the  largest,  deepest,  finest,  and  most  numerous 


232  THE    BRAIN    AND    NERVOUS    SYSTEM. 


G 

No.  20.     THE  STRUCTURE  OF  THE  BRAIN. 

convolutions.  Said  that  celebrated  surgeon  Geo.  McLellan, 
of  Philadelphia,  "  Called  some  years  ago  to  make  a  post- 
mortem examination  of  the  brain  of  one  of  the  most  distin- 
guished public  men  of  Delaware.  I  was  perfectly  astonished 
at  the  size  and  depth  of  its  convolutions  ;  I  never  saw  any- 
thing like  it  in  all  my  life  ;" — doubtless  because  those  subjects 
which  had  come  before  him  in  the  dissecting-room  had  been 
those  of  inferior  mental  endowments,  and  consequently  of 
smaller  convolutions. 

These  folds,  and  of  course  the  substance  of  the  brain,  are 
composed  of  two  widely  differing  substances — the  outer  called 
cineritious,  from  its  pale  ash  color,  and  also  cortical  from  its 
surrounding  the  other,  while  the  inner  is  white  in  color,  and 
made  up  of  converging  and  diverging  fibres,  and  called  medul- 
lary. These  two  substances  are  well  represented  in  the  fol- 
lowing engraving.  Its  dark  folds  are  designated  by  figures 
1  to  14. 

The  outer  rim  represents  the  skull,  and  those  dots  in.it  in- 
dicate its  diploe — cells  stationed  to  break  the  force  of  blows 


SUBSTANCES    OF    THE    BRAIN. 


253 


CORTICAL    AND    MEDULLARY    SUBSTANCES    OF    THE    BRAIN. 


No.  21.    A  PERPENDICULAR  SECTION  OF  THE  BRAIN  AND  SKULL. 

and  prevent  fracture.  Those  waves  or  lobes  containing  the 
figures  represent  the  cineritious  substance,  and  below  it  the 
medullary,  the  fine  diverging  lines  of  which  represent  the 
thread-like  or  fibrous  structure  of  the  brain. 

The  folds  just  described  are  here  seen  to  appertain  to  the 
cineritious  or  outer  portion  of  the  brain,  and  this  is  undoubtedly 
that  portion,  the  action  of  which  produces  mind.  If  this  be 
so,  the  existence  of  convolutions  on  the  two  sides  of  the  falx — 
just  where  the  above  section  of  the  brain  is  made — goes  to 
show  that  those  lobes  numbered,  from  2  to  14,  are  phrenologi- 
cal organs,  which  is  doubtless  the  case. 

The  brain  is  exceedingly  soft — about  the  consistency  of  jelly 
— and  its  inner  or  medullary  portion  is  composed  of  two  seta 
of  nerves,  one  of  which  converges  from  its  center  to  ifs  sur- 
22 


254  THE   BRAIN   AND   NERVOUS  SYSTEM. 

face,  and  the  other  from  its  surface  to  its  center.  These 
nervous  fibres  are  filled  with  a  semi-fluid — indeed,  four-fifths 
of  the  substance  of  the  brain  and  nerves  are  water — called 
neurine,  and  probably  exercises  and  transmits  sensation  and 
mental  action  by  means  of  undulations  or  motions. 

150.       THE    CEREBELLUM    AND    ITS    FUNCTIONS. 

A  thick  membrane  resembling  the  dura  mater,  called  the  ten- 
torium,  is  stretched  across  horizontally  just  at  2,  fig.  18,  separat- 
ing the  brain  into  two  divisions,  the  upper  and  larger  of  which  is 
caHed  the  cerebrum  or  brain  proper,  which  performs  the  men- 
tal functions,  and  the  lower  and  smaller  of  which  is  called  the 
cerebellum,  or  little  brain,  and  in  all  probability  serves  to 
carry  on  the  physical  functions.  Sever  the  nerve  which 
passes  between  the  brain  and  stomach,  and  hunger  is  de- 
stroyed, and  digestion  suspended.  The  stomach  simply 
digests,'  whereas*  hunger  and  gustatory  pleasure  are  experi- 
enced by  an  organ  of  the  stomach,  located  in  the  cerebellum, 
called  ALIMENTIVENESS.  In  like  manner,  the  sexual  emotion 
is  not  experienced  in  its  apparatus,  but  in  the  cerebellum,  by 
a  cerebral  organ  called  AMATIVENESS.  Now  since  two  of  the 
physical  functions  are  known  to  be  performed  by  means  of  cere- 
bral organs  acting  in  conjunction  with  the  physical,  the  former 
stimulated  by  the  latter — that  is,  since  the  stomach  and  sexual 
apparatus  have  their  cerebral  organs  in  the  cerebellum — have 
not  the  heart,  lungs,  muscles,  liver,  bowels,  pancreas,  kidneys, 
and  all  the  other  organs  of  the  body*  also  their  cerebral  organs 
in  the  cerebellum  ?  By  what  law  the  two  former  and  not  the 
latter  ?  Are  such  variations  and  exceptions  in  accordance 
with  nature  ?  That  law  of  universality  already  presented  l7, 
settles 'this  matter  in  the  affirmative,  and  shows  the  true  office 
of  the  cerebellum,  namely,  to  perform  the  physical  func- 
tions. 

This  conclusion  is  admirably  fortified  by  the  fact  that  all 
the  nerves  which  connect  the  brain  with  the*body,  proceed 
from  the  cerebellum,  as  seen  in  the  accompanying  engrav- 
ing— none  from  the  cerebrum.  This  establishes  the  most 
perfectly  reciprocal  inter-relation  between  the  body  and  cere- 


THE    SEAT    OF    THE    SOUL. 


255 


bellum,  and  the  near  relationship  of  the  cerebellum  and 
cerebrum  renders  their  states  also  reciprocal,  and  thus  is 
Droved  and  explained  that  perfect  reciprocity  between  all  the 


No.  22.     THE  NERVES  OF  THE  BRAIN. 

states  of  the  body  and  mind  already  pointed  out !4  15  l6 13,  and 
to  be  hereafter  more  fully  applied. 

These  facts  and  deductions  establish  the  conclusion  that  the 
brain  does  something  besides  think  and  feel — that  it  generates 
and  sends  forth  that  "vis  animoe" or  vital  spirit  which  ani- 
mates all  parts  of  the  body,  infuses  life  and  action  into  them, 
and  sets  and  keeps  .the  entire  human  machinery  in  motion  ;  so 
that  its  healthy  state  is  essential  to  that  of  the  body,  and  the 
disease  of  the  one  also  causes  the  disease  of  the  other. 

151.       CONSCIOUSNESS OR    THE    SEAT    OF    THE    SOUL. 

One  other  fact  in  the  anatomy  of  the  brain  deserves  special 
attention — its  commissures.  That  falciform  fissure  already 
described,  which  extends  from  the  root  of  the  nose  over  the 
top  of  the  head  to  the  nape  of  the  neck,  and  separates  the 
brain  into  its  hemispheres,  dips  down  an  inch  and  a  half  or 


256 


1HE    BRAIN    AND    NERVOUS    SYSTEM. 


two  inches  below  the  top  of  the  head,  till  it  meets  with  an 
arch-shaped  bundle  of  nerves,  some  of  which  run  backward 
and  forward,  thus  uniting  the  frontal  with  the  occipital  portion 
of  the  brain,  and  others  running  crosswise  from  side  to  sftle  of 
the  head,  thus  uniting  the  two  hemispheres  of  the  brain.  This 
nervous  bundle  is  called  the  corpus  callosum,  and  its  arched 
structure  forms  a  commissure,  into  which  a  yellowish  fluid  is 
continually  poured,  and  from  which  it  is  absorbed  as  continu- 
ally, except  in  cases  of  hydrocephalic  affections,  or  water  on 
the  brain,  when  it  is  retained,  infuses  itself  in  between  the 
nerves  of  the  brain,  and  expands  the  skull.  This  structure 
will  be  fully  seen  in  the  accompanying  engraving  of  a  section 


No.  23.     THE  CORPUS  CALLOSUM. 

M  M  those  folds  on  the  two  sides  of  the  falx  already  de- 
scribed. H  the  corpus  callosum  or  cris-cross  bundle  of  arched 
fibres,  and  right  under  it,  or  between  it  and  F  the  great  commis- 
sure we  are  describing.  I  is  at  the  back  of  the  head,  where  the 
tentorium  separates  the  cerebellum  from  the  cerebrum,  and  that 
limb  and  its  branches,  called  the  arbor  vite,  shows  the  internal 
structure  of  the  cerebellum  ;  A  spinal  marrow ;  B  C  Pons  varolii ; 
K  optic  nerve. 


STRUCTURE    IF    THE    NERVES.  257 

of  the  brain  from  the  nose  over  the  middle  of  the  head,  along 
the  falx  down  to  the  spinal  marrow. 

The  SEAT  OE  THE  SOUL  is  probably  in  this  commissure,  and 
the  corpus  callosum  undoubtedly  serves  to  impart  that  CONCERT 
to  all  the  faculties  called  CONSCIOUSNESS,  by  which  one  faculty 
calls  up  such  of  the  others  as  may  be  required  to  accomplish 
the  end  sought.  Yet  as  this  point  does  not  come  clearly  within 
our  proposed  range  of  description,  its  proof  and  full  elucidation 
must  be  transferred  to  some  other  place. 


SECTION   II. 

THE    NERVOUS    SYSTEM. 
152        STRUCTURE. 

THE  nerves  are  Inrt ^continuation  or  extension  of  the  sub- 
stance  of  the  brain  throughout  the  system.  This  is  effected 
by  means  of  the  spinal  cord  d,  fig  19,  which  is  enclosed  in  the 
spinal  column  or  back-bone.  The  substance  of  this  cord  and 
of  the  nerves,  closely  resembles  that  of  the  brain,  except  that 
the  cineritious  is  inside  and  the  medullary  on  the  outside — a 
reversion  having  taken  place. 

This  cord  gives  off  nerves  at  each  spinal  joint  to  the  heart, 
lungs,  stomach,  liver,  viscera,  and  all  the  other  internal  organs. 
When  these  organs  become  chronically  irritated,  inflamed,  or 
diseased,  their  nerves  become  similarly  affected,  so  that,  since 
each  of  these  nerves  unite  with  the  spinal  cord  at  its  own  par- 
ticular joint  and  no  other,  by  pressing  on  the  joint  which  re- 
ceives the  nerve  of  the  heart,  a  soreness,  perhaps  sharp  pain, 
will  be  experienced  by  the  patient,  and  thus  of  all  the  other 
internal  organs.  This  test  of  disease  is  INFALLIBLE,  and  tells 
at  once  and  with  certainty  whether  any  of  the  vital  organs  are 
affected,  and  if  so,  which — five  minutes  being  sufficient  to  de- 
cide the  matter  without  mistake. 

Nerves  also  go  off  through  these  joints  to  the  hands,  feet, 
muscles,  bones,  and  every  portion  of  the  body.  Another 
nervous  track  is  called  the  great  sympathetic  nerve,  which 
22*  • 


258  THE    NERVES. 

traverses  the  cavity  of  the  chest  from  thorax  to  abdomen. 
Thus  a  double  nervous  inter-communion  of  all  the  organs  of 
the  body  is  maintained  both  with  each  other  and  with  their 
common  center — the  brain.  These  nerves  are  always  found  in 
close  proximity  with  blood  vessels — both  arteries  and  nerves — 
the  three  always  accompanying  each  other  throughout  the 
system.  And  not  only  is  every  principal  nerve  thus  supplied 
with  blood-vessels,  but  even  every  shred  of  every  nerve,  and 
not  only  every  muscle,  but  even  every  fibre  of  every  muscle, 
similarly  supplied  with  both  blood-vessels  and  nerves.  Wher- 
ever there  is  life,  there  also  will  nerves  be  found,  and  the 
more  life  in.  any  animated  thing  or  part  there  the  more 
nerve. 

.   153.   THE  FUNCTIONS  OF  THE  NERVES. 

These  nerves  are  of  three  kinds — those  of  sensation,  those 
of  voluntary  motion,  and  those  of  involuntary  motion.  The 
nerves  of  sensation  proceed  from  the  back  half  of  the  spinal 
cord,  and  those  of  motion  from  the  anterior  half,  and  soon  af- 
ter they  issue  through  the  joints  they  unite,  are  incased  in  one 
common  sheath,  and  cannot  be  distinguished  from  each  other. 
Yet  on  cutting  the  nerve,  say  that  which  goes  to  the  hand 
or  issues  from  the  anterior  half  of  the  spinal  cord,  all  sen- 
sation  is  destroyed,  so  that,  the  hand  may  be  cut,  burnt,  any- 
thing, without  feeling  it,  while  on  cutting  that  from  the  poste- 
rior half,  all  power  of  motion  is  destroyed.  The  involuntary 
nerves  go  to  the  heart,  lungs,  stomach,  and  other"  internal  or- 
gans so  as  to  cary  on  their  several  functions  irrespective  of 
the  will,  while  asleep,  and  when  attending  to  the  affairs  of 
life,  an  arrangement  absolutely  indispensable. 

The  nerves  of  voluntary  motion  are  distributed  mainly  to 
the  muscles  and  enable  us  to  govern  them  at  will — to  move 
the  hands,  feet,  and  body,  in  accordance  with  the  determina- 
tions of  the  will,  of  which  all  of  us  are  perpetually  conscious; 
while  those  of  sensation  are  ramified  mostly  upon  the  SURFACE 
of  the  body,  stationed  as  sentinels  upon  the  outer  walls  to  warn 
against  the  approach  of  all  enemies  to  life  and  health — to  tell 
us  when  we  are  too  warm,  or  too  coli;  or  in  contact  with  any- 


TJIE1R    FUNCTIONS.  259 

thing  injurious.  The  opinion  has  already  been  expressed  that 
the  skin  consists  of  a  network  of  blood-vessels  and  nerves — 
an  opinion  confirmed  by  the  fibrous  and  porous  structure  of 
leather,  especially  when  tanned  to  excess — so  minutely  rami- 
fied that  the  finest  needle  cannot  be  thrust  through  any  part  of 
it  without  lacerating  and  paining  some  of  them.  The  minute- 
ness of  this  ramification  is  absolutely  inconceivable.  Nature 
is  as  infinite  in  her  littleness  as  in  her  greatness.  Our  huge 
earth,  compared  with  which  a  mountain  is  as  a  grain  of  sand, 
is  but  an  atom  compared  with  her  planetary  sisters,  Saturn 
and  Jupiter,  and  even  the  whole  solar  system  itself  is  a  mole- 
hill compared  with  its  grand  center,  the  sun,  so  massive  as  to 
baffle  all  known  attempts  at  comprehension.  Nor  this  merely, 
but  sun  and  planets  if  rolled  together  into  one  mighty  pile, 
the  merest  hillock  compared  with  that  vast  belt  of  suns  and 
worlds  perceptible  to  human  vision.  And  even  all  this  prob- 
ably only  a  sped*  of  the  boundless  universe  !  O  God,  how 
vast  is  thygH5atness  ! 51S 

^]£etrthis  same  Infinite  Architect  of  the  universe  descends  as 
far  below  us  in  littleness  as  he  rises  above  us  in  vastness. 
Infinite  magnitude,  infinite  capillary  ramifications,  are  both 
alike  to  him.  Words  utterly  fail  to  describe,  and  the  human 
mind  to  conceive,  the  fineness  of  these  capillary  formations,  as 
in  the  structure  of  his  lungs,  blood-vessels,  pores,  and  nerves. 
Verily,  "  thy  ways,  O  God,  are  infinite."  In  this  infinite  lit- 
tleness of  nervous  ramification  in  the  skin,  sensation  takes 
place.  These  nerves  ultimately  end  in  an  infinitude  of  lit- 
tle papillae  or  feelers,  which  cover  the  entire  surface  of 
the  body,  and  create  that  sensation  of  which  we  are  all  con- 
scious. 

This  capillary  nervous  structure,  as  also  the  general  ar- 
rangement of  the  nervous  system,  is  well  illustrated  in  the  fol- 
lowing engraving. 

These  nerves  are  much  more  abundant  at  the  surface  of 
the  body  than  internally ;  and  hence  amputations,  and  all 
cuttings  and  bruises,  biles  and  sores,  the  greatest  pain  is 
nearest  the  skin — it  being  comparatively  slight  after  the  cut 
?>£  hurt  has  fairly  passed  below  the  skin.  Yet  when  a  bon« 


260 


THE    NERVES. 
CAPILLARY    NERVOUS    RAMIFICATION. 


No.  24.    THE  NERVOUS  SYSTEM- 

has  become  inflamed  it  is  also  exceedingly  painful,  yet  here 
also  the  pain  is  mainly  at  its  SURFACE.  Since  the  inner  por- 
tions are  protected  by  the  outer,  as  great  a  supply  internally 
as  externally  would  be  a  useless  expenditure  of  vitality. 

Yet  a  still  greater  sentry  of  nerves  is  stationed  al  some 
points  than  at  others — about  the  eyes,  hands,  and  especially 
ends  of  the  fingers,  the  utility  of  which  is  beyond  all  computa- 
tion,- as  all  know  by  perpetual  experience. 


SENSATION.  261 

^  '*      ^        '  ' 

154.       IMPORTANCE    OF    SENSATION. 

The  importance  of  the  sensation  thus  effected  is  incalcula- 
ble. Without  it  we  could  never  know  when  we  were  too 
cold,  or  too  warm  ;  when  our  flesh  was  burning,  or  freezing,  or 
bruisedj  or  mangled,  or  experiencing  any  sort  of  injury  or  de- 
struction, unless  we  chanced  to  see  it.  But  now,  the  instant 
they  come  in  contact  with  whatever  injures  them  or  the  sys- 
tem, they  take  on  a  painful  action,  and  thus  cause  a  spontane- 
ous shrinking  from  the  noxious  body,  which  saves  from  farther 
damage.  The  suddenness  with  which  this  warning  and 
shrinking  occur  as  when  we  touch  fire,  or  are  cut,  or  pricked 
with  any  sharp  instrument  is  astonishing.  The  very  instant 
we  touch  fire,  for  example,  we  jerk  the  part  burned  from  it, 
yet,  instantaneous  as  it  is,  the  nerves  feel  pain,  telegraph  that 
pain  to  the  brain,  muster  the  will,  which  gives  the  muscles  a 
mandate  to  remove  the  part  affected,  and  they  obey — all  in  the 
twinkling  of  an  eye.  The  importance  of  this  instantaneous- 
ne§s4s"very  great,  because  the  injury  in  cases  of  burns,  punc- 
tures, brui-ses,  etc.,  is  extremely  rapid,  so  that,  but  for  this 
instantaneousness,  great  havoc  would  occur  before  it  could  be 
arrested,  which  this  suddenness  now  prevents.  This  arrange- 
ment of  pain,  then  becomes  one  of  the  most  useful  institutions 
of  our  nature 3. 

155.       IMPORTANCE    OF    HEALTHY    NERVES. 

But  this  function  of  pain  is  by  no  means  the  only  one  ex- 
perienced by  these  nerves — indeed,  is  not  their  chief,  or 
even  their  natural  one  4.  Strictly  speaking,  it  is  their  abnor- 
mal function.  They  never  take  on  this  painful  action  except 
the  body  is  abnormally  affected,  and  when  they  do,  do  so  as  a 
matter  of  necessity,  not  as  their  natural  function.  Their  nor- 
mal function  is  to  yield  a  pleasurable  sensation  when  and  be- 
cause the  body  is  in  a  natural  and  therefore  agreeable  state  *. 
For  such  a  state  nature  has  amply  provided.  Every  arrange- 
ment of  external  nature  is  adapted  to  give  them  pleasure,  and 
this  is  their  sole  product  when  their  laws  are  observed,  such 
painful  action  being  consequent  only  on  the  violation  of  such 
laws.  Nor  do  we  realize  how  much  pleasure  they  yield  us. 


262  TAfE    NERVES. 

Like  breathing,  it  is  so  perpetual  as  not  to  be  appreciated,  yet 
it  is  none  the  less  real.  And  it  might  be  doubled  many  times 
over  if  we  but  kept  them  in  a  perfectly  healthy  and  highly 
active  state.  Take  some  examples.  Your  face,  before  it  is 
washed  in  the  morning,  does  not  feel  half  that  pleasurable 
glow  experienced  on  washing  it.  Why  ?  Because  the  ablu- 
tion cleanses  and  quickens  these  nerves.  Or  wash  say  one 
limb,  hand,  or  arm,  or  half  of  the  body,  or  a,  part  of  a  limb, 
and  not  the  balance,  and  the  washed  portions  will  feel  as 
much  more  clean,  susceptible,  and  comfortable  as  can  well  be 
imagined.  The  experiment  is  well  worth  trying,  and  power- 
fully enforces  the  importance  of  those  ablutions  of  the  whole 
body  already  recommended  no.  Nor  do  those  know  who  have 
not  tried  the  experiment  how  much  more  lively,  brisk,  buoy- 
ant, and  happy,  bathing  renders  those  who  practice  it,  not 
at  the  time  merely,  but  for  hours,  and  perhaps  days  after- 
wards. 

So  also  colds  which  impair  the  sensitiveness  of  these  nerves, 
either  benumb  them  so  that  they  feel  but  little,  or  fever  them, 
and  cause  a  kind  of  restless,  crawling,  burning,  sensation, 
which  makes  us  almost  want  to  "jump  out  of  our  skin." 
What  we  call  the  creevels  consist  in  a  crawling,  feverish, 
painful  state  of  these  nerves,  and  can  be  obviated  by  restoring 
them  to  healthy  action.  Nor  can  wfe  conceive  how  much  of 
our  suffering  comes  directly  and  indirectly  from  the  disordered 
and  therefore  painful  condition  of  these  nerves ;  nor  how  su- 
perlatively happy  we  could  render  ourselves  by  keeping  these 
feelers  in  a  vigorous  and  perfectly  healthy  state.  But  the  entire 
drift  of  our  habits  tends  to  deaden  and  disorder  them,  and 
thus  to  convert  the  pleasure  they  were  created  to  confer  into 
pain*.  We  begin  to  vitiate  these  nerves  in  the  cradle  by  extra 
dressing  and  a  confined  and  over-heated  atmosphere120,  and  go 
on  to  weaken  and  disorder  them  more  and  more  through  life. 
Every  cold  we  take,  they  suffer — are  the  chief  sufferers. 
This  we  never  need  to  do,  and  ought  by  all  means  to  avoid. 
Have  you  never  felt,  while  suffering  from  cold,  an  inde- 
scribable sensation  of  uervous  crawling  uneasiness,  amounting 
to  intense  pain,  so  that  you  could  neither  sit,  nor  stand,  nor 


THEIR   DISEASE.  263 

walk,  nor  lie  still,  but  seek  a  perpetual  change  of  place,  yot 
without  finding  relief?  You  feel  as  though  you  would  fain 
spring  right  away  from  yourself,  or,  snake-like,  shed  your 
skin — if  you  could  only  relieve  yourself  from  this  wretched 
state  of  feeling.  This  state  of  the  nervous  system  is  particu- 
larly apparent  when  we  have  taken  cold— its  warnings  heedod 
would  prevent  all  colds — and  in  the  incipient  stages  of  fever, 
while  the  chills  of  ague  and  fever  are  on,  and  generally  when 
we  are  unwell.  What  are  called  nervous,  hystericky  people, 
are  particularly  liable  to  its  attack,  and  their  condition  is 
indeed  pitiable.  Yet  they  should  not  have  brought  on  this 
nervous  disorder. 

156.       EFFECTS    OF   DISEASED    NERVES    UPON    THE   MIND. 

But  the  evils  of  diseased  nerves  do  not  stop  here.  They 
extend  also  to  the  mind,  and  render  the  entire  being  more  and 
still^more  wretched  the  more  they  are  disordered.  They  not 
only  inflict  the  creevles  and  the  fidgets  upon  the  body,  but  still 
more  upon  the  mind.  That  connection  of  the  nerves  of  the 
skin  with  all  the  nerves  of  the  body  l53,  and  of  the  latter  with 
the  cerebellum  l52,  and  through  it  with  the  cerebrum,  engen- 
ders the  same  condition  in  the  brain  which  exists  in  the  nerves 

6  l7.  It  is  not  possible  for  the  nerves  of  the  skin  to  be 
affected,  without  similarly  affecting  both  brain  and  mind.  If 
the  former  are  in  a  feverish,  unhappy,  or  painful  state,  they 
diffuse  that  state  throughout  all  we  think,  say,  do,  desire,  and 
feel.  Nervous  people — by  these  are  meant  those  whose  nerves 
are  disordered,  though  all  have  nerves — are  always  fretful. 
They  feel  wretchedly  in  body  and  mind  ;  and  if  they  do  not 
worry,  tew,  and  find  fault  with  everybody  and  everything, 
it  is  not  because  they  do  not  feel  irritable.  Disordered  nerves 
would  render  an  angel  as  cross  as  a  fury.  However  amiable 
a  woman  may  be  by  nature,  just  as  surely  as  her  nerves 
become  disordered  just  so  sure'ly  she  becomes  peevish  and  fret- 
ful, if  not  ill-natured  and  bad-dispositioned.  She  would  find 
fault  in  paradise  if  there,  thus  disordered.  But,  restore 
her  nerves  to  their  normal,  and  therefore  happy  state,  and 
you  restore  her  to  her  original  serenity  of  mind  and  sweetness 


264  THE    NERVES. 

of  temper.  What  worried  her  before  now  gives  her  pleasure 
She  laughs  now  at  what  she  scolded  then.  Those  mental 
troubles  which  then  preyed  upon  her  mind,  have  now  taken 
their  flight.  Indeed,  she  was  troubled  in  mind  only  because 
disordered  in  body.  The  troubles  of  such  are  imaginaiy, 
not  real  ;  or  if  real,  are  magnified  in  the  exact  ratio  of  the 
disease  of  their  nerves.  If  such  have  no  real  cause  of  trou- 
ble, they  will  make  it  out  of  whole  cloth.  As  every  motion 
and  touch  in  the  gathering  bile  give  pain,  which,  if  well, 
would  givfe  pleasure,  so  with  their  minds.  The  irritation  of 
their  nerves  irritates  the  brain,  and  this  renders  them  inor- 
dinately irritable  about  trifles,  even  in  spite  of  everything 
calculated  to  promote  a  cheerful  and  happy  frame  of  mind. 
Trifles  excite  them  more  than  should  the  cares  of  kingdoms. 
A  great  load  presses  perpetually  upon  them.  They  feel  as 
though  some  terrible  calamity — what,  they  know  not — im- 
pended over  them,  ready  to  fall  upon  and  crush  them.  Their 
excited  imaginations  magnify  molehills  till  they  become  moun- 
tains. They  are  rendered  wretched  from  morning  till  night 
by  a  perpetual  fever  of  excitement ;  tossed  back  and  forth 
by  currents  and  counter  currents  of  feeling,  which  they  find 
it  impossible  to  control.  At  one  time,  they  are  elated  beyond 
measure,  and  full  of  ecstasy.  Some  trifling  thing,  too  insig- 
nificant to  affect  a  healthy  brain,  casts  them  into  the  very 
depths  of  despair.  The  sensibilities  are  morbidly  alive  to 
everything.  They  retire  to  their  couch,  but  not  to  sleep. 
The  boiling  blood  courses  through  their  veins,  while  the  labor- 
ing pulsations  of  their  hearts  shake  their  whole  frame.  Their 
thoughts  wander  to  the  ends  of  the  earth,  but  to  no  purpose. 
They  think  and  feel  upon  everything,  only  to  increase  their 
disease,  and  aggravate  their  mental  sufferings.  If  Cautious- 
ness be  large,  they  are  afraid  of  their  own  shadows,  and  see 
their  path  filled  with  lions  and  tigers.  If  Approbativeness 
predominate,,  they  thirst  for  fame,  but  see  the  cup  of  praise 
dashed  from  their  lips  by  merely  imaginary  neglects,  or  ie- 
proofs  which  are  so  construed  as  to  induce  the  deepest  chagrin 
and  mortification.  They  seek  sleep,  but  find  it  not.  Hour 
after  hour  they  turn  upon  their  damask  couches,  exhausted 


HEALTHY    NERVES. 


265 


by  mental  action,  even  to  prostration,  but  unable  to  compose 
their  excited,  erratic  feelings.  Their  brighest  thoughts  flit  like 
meteors  across  their  mental  horizon,  only  to  vanish  in  midnight 
darkness.  And  if  tardy  sleep  at  last  folds  them  in  his  arms, 
frightful  dreams  disturb  their  shallow  slumbers,  and  they 
awake  enshrouded  in  deep,  impenetrable  melancholy.  They 
feel  most  keenly,  only  to  feel  most  wretchedly.  Now  and 
then,  a  sign,  or  groan,  or  "  O  dear  me  !"  escapes  them,  and 
they  internally  feel,  "  O  wretched  man  that  I  am."  They  feel 
burthened  with,  they  know  not  what,  but  this  only  oppresses 
them  the  more.  Things,  otherwise  their  joy,  are  now  their 
misery,  and'  everything  sweet  is  rendered  bitter*  Their 
nervous  energies  are  wrought  up  to  the  highest  pitch  of  in- 
flamed  action  ;  yet  they  have  no  strength  to  endure  this  excite, 
ment.  Days  and  we*eks  roll  on  only  to  augment  their  mise- 
ries, and  to  increase  their  exhaustion.  Their  excited  minds 
thirst  for  books,  but  mental  application  only  enhances  both 
their  malady  and  its  miseries.  Do  what  they  will,  be  they  in 
what  circumstances  they  may,  their  disordered  nerves  turn  all 
they  touch  into  occasions  of  wretchedness.  The  difference 
between  the  talents,  character*,  and  happiness  of  the  same  per- 
son when  his  nerves  are  healthy  and  when  diseased,  is  heaven- 
wide.  None  can  ever  know  but  those  who  know  by  experi- 
ence. The  way  is  thus  prepared  for  showing 

157.       HOW    TO    KEEP    THE    NERVOUS    SYSTEM    IN    HEALTH. 

Since  healthy  nerves  render  us  thus  happy,  and  disordered 
nerves  thus  miserable,  the  inquiry  just  proposed  becomes  as 
important  as  happiness  is  desirable  and  pain  dreadful.  Our 
answer  is,  let  them  "  whistle  themselves" 26.  Do  nothing  to 
derange  them,  and  they  will  never  disorder  themselves.  The 
two  general  directions  are,  first,  keep  the  skin  clean  and  ac- 
.tive  by  bathing  w  no,  and  secondly,  give  them  ACTION.  Exer- 
cise is  as  requisite  to  them  as  to  the  muscles,  or  lungs,  or  any 
other  portion  of  the  body.  Yet  who  ever  thinks  of  providing 
exercise  for  them  ?  One  means  of  securing  their  action  is  by 
promoting  cerebral  action,  of  which  in  Vols.  II  and  III,  and  the 
other  by  exercising  them  direct.  Nor  can  I  resist  the  convic- 
23 


266  THS    NERVES. 

lion  that  nature  abounds  witi  herbs  and  things,  which,  applied 
externally;  in  the  form  of  ointments  or  decoctions,  will  secure 
a  most  delightful  glow  of  nervous  feeHng,  and  consequently  of 
comfort,  bordering  on  ecstasy.  Yet  this  is  only  inferential. 

But  the  great  direction,  after  all,  is,  not  to  over-tax  them  by 
highly  stimulating  meats  and  drinks,  such  as  alcoholic  and 
fermented  drinks,  narcotics,  as  tea,  coffee,  tobacco,  and  opium, 
or  mustards,  spices,  and  condiments  generally.  And  they  usu- 
ally begin  their  work  of  derangement  in  the  cradle.  No  kind 
of  stimulants  should  ever  be  administered  to  children  or  youth. 
They  are  sufficiently  excitable  and  active  already.  Opium 
in  any  of  its  forms  is  most  detrimental  for  infants..  But  of  this 
also  in  "  Maternity." 

But  mental  excitement,  anxiety,  and  trouble,  more  effectu- 
ally derange  the  nervous  system  than  ^any  other  cause,  and 
should  therefore  be  avoided.  The  fact  is,  all  should  arrange 
their  houses,  lands,  business,  domestic  affairs,  and  everything 
around  them,  little  and  great,  so  as  to  render  themselves  as 
happy  as  possible,  and  by  all  means  avoid  occasions  of  sad 
feelings  and  vexations.  And  if  trouble  does  overtake  them,  as 
the  loss  of  friends,  domestic  difficulties,  failure  in  business,  or 
anything  of  the  like,  banish  it  as  far  as  possible  from  the 
mind,  and  try  to  think  on  what  gives  pleasure.  -  Children 
also  should  be  crossed  and  provoked,  and  especially  flogged 
as  little  as  possible,  because  the  painful  excitement  thus  occa- 
sioned is  directly  calculated  to  disorder  the  nervous  system. 

To  show  how  to  restore  disordered  nerves  would  now  be  iu 
point,  yet  can  be  more  effectually  presented  presently. 

Having  expounded  the  principal  organs  and  functions  of  the 
human  body,  and  shown  how  to  preserve  them  in  a  healthy 
and  vigorous  state  of  action,  we  are  thus  brought  to  consider 
the  general  subject  of  diseases  and  their  remedy,  which,  next 
to  the  preservation  of  health,  becomes  an  all  absorbing  subject 
of  human  inquiry. 


DISEASE    CCRABLE. 

CHAPTER  VII. 

THE    REMEDY    OF    DISEASES. 


SECTION.    I. 

OBSERVANCE  OF  THE  LAWS  OF  HEALTH   MORE  EFFECTUAL  RESTO- 
RATIVES THAN  MEDICINES. 

158.       EXISTENCE,  DEFINITION,  AND  CURABILITY  OF  DISEASE. 

ALL  the  physiological  organs  thus  far  described,  though  their 
normal  function  is  fraught  only  with  life  and  happiness20,  yet 
are  capable  of  taking  on  that  abnormal  or  diseased  function 
which  results  in  pain  and  constitutes  disease.  Indeed,  sick- 
ness and  disease  consist  in  nothing  else.  They  assume  differ- 
ent forms  according  to  the  organs  disordered,  the  degree  of 
the  disorder,  and  some  other  circumstances ;  yet  the  nature 
of  disease  is  much  less  complex  than  generally  supposed. 

Nor  are  these  diseases  incurable.  So  far  therefrom,  the 
existence  of  remedial  agents  is  not  a  matter  of  doubt  but  of 
experimental  fact.  Though  neither  pain  nor  disease  form 
any  part  of  the  ordinances  of  nature,  yet  a  secondary  provision 
for  their  existence  consists  in  the  fact  that  the  violation  of  the 
physical  laws  occasions  them,  thus  warning  us  against  farther 
violation.  And  here  nature  might  have  left  us.  All  broken 
bones,  severed  nerves  and  blood-vessels,  and  all  other  conse- 
quences of  broken  law  might  have  been  left  in  that  state  in, 
which  they  occurred.  But  an  infinitely  benevolent  God  has 
devised  a  REMEDIAL  principle — has  made  provision  for  a  more 
or  less  complete  re-union  of  broken  bones  and  lascerated  blood, 
vessels,  muscles,  and  nerves,  and  for  a  restoration  of  debilitated 
and  disordered  functions — a  provision  as  beautiful  in  device 
as  useful  in  result. 

Nor  is  this  curative  process  contracted  in  scope  or  feeble  in 
power.  So  far  therefrom,  it  is  almost  a  universal  PANACEA. 


268  CURE    O      DISEASE. 

Though  a. few  of  the  violations  of  the  physical  laws  are  pun- 
ished with  incurable  penalties,  such  as  an  amputated  head,  a 
pierced  heart,  and  the  like,  yet  most  cases  of  disease,  poisons 
not  excepted,  taken  in  season,  can  undoubtedly  be  cured.  In 
fact,  nature  seems  to  have  taken  the  utmost  pains  to  vary  her 
remedies  so  as  to  cure  most  if  not  all  the  "ills  that  flesh  is 
heir  to."  As,  wherever  any  venomous  serpent  inhabits,  there 
will  also  be  found  some  herb  which,  seasonably  applied,  will 
effectually  cure  its  bite,  so  doubtless  of  all  other  forms  of 
disease l:.  Nor  need  we  import  medicines,  for  they  will  be 
found  wherever  disease  can  exist,  every  way  adapted  to  all 
the  disorders  incident  to  its  locality. 

151).       VEGETABLE  AND  MINERAL    MEDICINES. 

These  medicines  abound  in  the  vegetable  kingdom  ;  and 
abounding  there,  why  look  any  farther  for  them  ?  Since  some 
are  there,  why  not  ALL  ?  l7  And  since  simple  medicines  exist 
in  the  vegetable  kingdom  already  prepared  at  our  hands  by 
nature,  why  resort  to  art  ?  Can  man  compound  and  prepare 
them  better  than  God  ?  Does  the  laboratory  of  art  surpass 
that  of  nature  ?  The  simple  fact  of  the  existence  of  remedial 
agents  already  prepared,  shows  that  we  need  not  take  nature's 
work  out  of  her  own  hands  l7. 

Especially,  must  we  POISON  the  system  in  order  to  cure  it  ? 
Shall  we  destroy  life  to  enhance  it  ?  Does  that  which  is  con- 
stitutionally hostile  to  life  promote  it  ?  Perfect  nonsense.  In 
the  teeth  of  every  principle  of  nature.  Besides,  her  entire 
economy  is  PLEASURE,  never  pain1.  Now  poisons  are  always 
painful  in  their  operation,  besides  being  nauseous  to  the  taste 
t— -of  itself  sufficient  to  condemn  them.  As  those  kinds  of 
food  'which  the  system  requires  relish  best33,  so  we  shall 
CRAVE  what  medicines  we  require.  The  curative  process  is 
constitutionally  pleasurable,  never  painful.  So  treat  a  wound 
as  to  heal  it  in  the  best  manner  possible,  and  it  will  feel 
good  and  comfortable.  Only  what  interferes  with  its  re- 
storation, occasions  pain.  And  this  law  holds  true  of  all 
forms  of  convalesence.  This  new  view  of  the  restorative 
process  is  true,  theoretically  and  practically.  Shall  obeyed 


VEGETABLE    AND   M/NERAL    MEDICINES.  269 

la\v  give  us  pleasure 6,  and  a  return  from  transgression  to  obe- 
dience necessarily  occasion  pain  ?  Does  anything  but  viola- 
ted law  cause  suffering  ?  °  Of  course,  then,  medicines  bitter  to 
the  taste  or  painful  in  their  operation,  nature  condemns  in  and 
by  the  very  pain  they  occasion.  Since  obedience  to  law  1*3 
followed  by  pleasure,  therefore  whatever  the  system  requires; 
will  give  us  pleasure,  ALL  pleasure.  I  can  read  nature  in  no 
other  way.  What  medicines  the  system  requires  it  will 
CRAVE  AND  LOVE.  Not  that  bitter  medicines  should  never  be 
taken,  but  that,  when  required,  their  very  bitterness  will  be 
sweet.  Otherwise,  nature  inflicts  pain  to  secure  pleasure, 
which  she  never  does.  Her  motto  is,  ALL  good,  no  evil.  Any 
other  view  of  nature  misrepresents  and  belies  her ;  or,  rather 
exposes  him  who  makes  it.  Though  she  often  brings  good  out 
of  evil,  and  makes  even  the  wrath  of  man  serve  her,  yet  she 
brings  still  greater  good  out  of  all  good.  Our  shortest  and 
surest  road  from  sickness  to  health,  therefore,  never  conducts 
us  through  what  is  repulsive  or  painful,  but  only  through  what 
is  pleasurable.  This  fully  established  principle  of  nature 
unequivocally  condemns 

160.       THE    USE    OF  POISONS,  CALOMEL,  AND    DEPLETIONS. 

The  very  principle  upon  which  they  act,  is  their  destruc- 
tion of  life.  Taken  in  health,  they  induce  sickness  ;  much 
more  aggravate  it.  And  their  reputation  for  curing  diseases 
is  due  mainly  to  abstinence  from  food,  perspiration,  and  empty- 
ing the  stomach,  all  of  which  can  be  effected  by  processes  en- 
tirely harmless.  Their  effect  upon  the  teeth  alone,  brands 
them  with  unequivocal  condemnation  ;  for  whatever  injures 
them  first,  disorders  the  stomach.  Their  decay  foretokens  in- 
cipient dyspepsia.  Hence,  since  they  are  always  impaired 
by  these  medicines — and  whoever  has  taken  poison  is  a  living 
witness  of  this  fact — they  of  course  always  enfeeble  the 
stomach. 

Narrowing  down  our  observation  to  that  popular  medicine 

CALOMEL.     It  powerfully  stimulates  the  liver,  but  stimulates 

by  POISONING  it.     Hence  liver  affections  almost  always  follow 

its  administration — always  except   when   both   stomach  and 

23* 


fc/0  CURE    OF    DISEASE. 

liver  are  extra  powerful.  Dyspepsia  follows  its  use  almost  as 
surely  as  sunrise  daylight,  because  induced  thereby.  Let  ob- 
servation, the  more  extensive  the  better,  pronounce  the  verdict. 
Language  can  never  adequately  portray  its  ravages  on  health 
and  life.  On  this  point  hear  Professor  Chapman,  of  Philadel- 
phia, to  his  class  : — 

GENTLEMEN  : — If  you  could  see  what  1  almost^daily  see  in  rny 
private  practice  in  this  city,  persons  from  the  South,  in  the  very  last 
stages  of  wretched  existence,  emaciated  to  a  skeleton,  with  both 
tables  of  the  skull  almost  completely  perforated  in  many  places, 
the  nose  half  gone,  with  rotten  jaws,  ulcerated  throats,  breaths 
more  pestiferous,  more  intolerable  than  poisonous  upas,  limbs  racked 
with  the  pains  of  the  Inquisition,  minds  as  imbecile  as  the  puling 
babe,  a  grievous  burden  to  themselves  and  a  disgusting  spectacle  to 
others,  you  would  exclaim  as  I  have  often  done,  '  O !  the  lamenta- 
ble want  of  science  that  dictates  the  abuse  of  that  noxious  drug 
calomel  in  the  Southern  States  !'  Gentlemen,  it  is  a  disgraceful 
reproach  to  the  profession  of  medicine,  it  is  quackery,  horrid,  un- 
warranted, murderous  quackery.  What  merit  do  gentlemen  of  the 
South  flatter  themselves  they  possess  by  being  able  to  salivate  a 
patient  ?  Cannot  the  veriest  fool  in  Christendom  salivate — give 
calomel  ?  But  I  will  ask  another  question.  Who  can  stop  its 
career  at  will,  after  it  has  taken  the  reins  in  its  own  DESTRUCTIVE 
AND  UNGOVERNABLE  HANDS  ?  He  who,  for  an  ordinary  cause,  re- 
signs the  fate  of  his  patient  to  mercury,  is  a  vile  enemy  to  the  sick; 
afld  if  he  is  tolerably  popular,  will,  in  one  successful  season,  have 
paved  the  way  for  the  business  of  life ;  for  he  has  enough  to  do 
ever  afterwards  to  stop  the  mercurial  breach  of  the  constitutions 
of  his  dilapidated  patients.  He  has  thrown  himself  in  fearful 
proximity  to  death,  and  has  now  to  fight  him  at  arms-length  as  long 
as  the  patient  maintains  a  miserable  existence." 

Dr.  Graham,  of  Edinburgh,  in  speaking  of  mercurial  medi- 
cines, says : — 

44  They  affect  the  human  constitution  in  a  peculiar  manner, 
taking,  so  to  speak,  an  iron  grasp  of  all  its  systems,  and  penetrating 
even  to  the  bones,  by  which  they  not  only  change  the  healthy  ac- 
tion of  its  vessels,  and  general  structure,  but  greatly  impair  and 
destroy  its  energies  ;  so  that  their  abuse  is  rarely  overcome.  When 
the  tone  of  the  stomach,  intestines,  or  nervous  symptoms  generally, 
has  been  once  injured  by  this  mineral,  according  to  my  experience, 
(and  I  have  paid  considerable  attention  to  the  subject,)  it  could  sel- 
dom afterwards  be  restored.  I  have  seen  many  persons  to  whom  it 
has  been  largely  given  for  the  removal  of  different  complaints,  who 
before  they  took  it,  knew  not  what  indigestion  and  nervous  depression 
meant,  only  by  the  description  of  others  ;  but  they  have  since  become 


CALOMEL.  271 

experimentally  acquainted  with  both,  for  they  now  constantly  com- 
plain of  weakness  and  irritability  of  the  digestive  organs,  of  frequent 
lowness  of  spirits  and  impaired  strength ;  all  of  which  it  appears 
to  me,  they  will  ever  be  sensible.  Instances  of  this  description 
abound.  Many  of  the  victims  of  this  practice,  are  aware  of  this 
origin  of  their  permanent  indisposition,  and  many  more  who  are  at 
present  unconscious  of  it,  might  here  find,  upon  investigation,  a  suf- 
ficient cause  for  their  sleepless  nights  and  miserable  days.  We 
have  often  had  every  benevolent  feeling  called  into  painful  exercise, 
upon  viewing  patients  already  exhausted  by  protracted  illness, 
groaning  under  the  accumulated  miseries  of  an  active  course  of 
mercury,  and  by  this  forever  deprived  of  perfect  restoration.  A 
barbarous  practice,  the  inconsistency,  folly,  and  injury  of  which  no 
words  can  sufficiently  describe." 

This  is  the  testimony  of  its  FRIENDS — of  distinguished  mem- 
bers of  the  medical  FACULTY — and  is  true  of  the  PRINCIPLE  on 
which  calomel  and  all  mineral  poisons  act.  And  the  more 
virulent  the  poison,  the  worse.  Those  who  take  them,  may 
recover,  yet  it  will  be  in  SPITE  of  both  disease  and  medicine. 
And  their  recovery  will  be  slow,  and  constitutions  impaired. 

"  But,"  retorts  one,  "  I  took  calomel,  arsenic,  quinine, 
and  other  condensed  poisons,  was  immediately  relieved,  and 
more  robust  afterwards  than  before."  Aye,  but  how  long 
did  you  REMAIN  so  ?  In  a  few  months  your  stomach  became 
impaired,  and  various  aches,  to  which  you  were  before  a 
stranger,  afflicted  you.  Still,  all  are  quite  welcome  to  swal- 
low all  the  rank  poisons  they  please,  but  for  one,  however  sick, 
I  should  rely  on  other  remedies,  particularly  perspiration. 

Scarcely  less  detrimental  than  these  poisons  is  that  draining 
of  the  life's  blood  which  generally  accompanies  it.  It  does 
not  extract  the  disease,  or  at  least  only  in  proportion  as  it 
withdraws  life  itself,  and  repeated  depletion  diverts  the  vital 
energies  from  brain  and  muscle  to  the  EXTRA  manufacture  of 
blood. 

A  summary  of  these  medicinal  principles  shows  that  we 
place  far  less  reliance  on  medicines,  even  vegetable,  as  resto* 
rative  agents,  than  on  physiological  prescriptions.  Obey  the 
laws  of  health,  and  we  need  not  be  sick,  and  when  sick  a  re- 
tarn  to  this  obedience  is  the  most  direct  road  to  health. 
the  existence  of  medicines  shows  that  they  should  be 


272  CURE    OF    DISEASE. 

taken.  Yet,  why  in  the  present  highly  condensed  form? 
Why  not  in  thnt  diluted  form  in  which  we  find  them  in  na- 
ture ?  In  short,  why  not  take  them  along  with  our  FOOD  ? 

161.       A  MEDICAL  DIET  BETTER  THAN  CONCENTRATED  MEDICINES. 

That  certain  kinds  of  food  are  eminently1  medicinal,  is  a 
matter  of  universal  experience.  Thus,  many  kinds  act  as 
powerful  cathartics.  Then  why  not  follow  nature  and  always 
move  the  bowels  by  diet  instead  of  by  concentrated  medi- 
cines ?  But  we  shall  touch  this  point  again.  What  we  wish 
now,  is  to  establish  the  PRINCIPLE  that  nature  has  furnished  us 
with  all  the  medicines  we  require  in  food,  and  that  medicines 
thus  administered,  are  always  efficacious,  and-Jiever  "  leave  a 
sting  behind."  We  have  already  shown  that  what  the  system 
requires,  it  will  RELISH  33,  and  that  what  is  either  repulsive  to 
the  taste  or  painful  in  its  operation  is  therefore  injurious150 ; 
the  plain  inference  from  which  is,  that  whenever  the  system 
requires  any  particular  kind  of  medicine,  appetite  will  crave 
those  kinds  of  food  which  will  effect  a  cure.  Every  medici- 
nal law  of  nature  centers  in  this  focus.  Granted,  that  man- 
kind has  not  yet  ascertained  a  tithe  of  the  different  kinds  of 
food  adapted  to  remedy  given  diseases,  yet  the  fact  that  SOME 
kinds  are  "good  for  some  complaints,"  taken  in  connection 
with  that  wholesale  law  already  demonstrated17,  establishes 
the  conclusion  that  ALL  diseases  have  their  specific  cures  in  par- 
ticular kinds  and  commixtures  of  diet.  I  can  read  nature's 
curative  laws  in  no  other  light.  Yet  more  on  this  point  under 
the  cure  of  dyspepsia. 

"  But  when  we  are  sick  we  have  no  appetite  for  any 
kind  of  food,"  objects  one.  Then  fast.  This  is  what  your 
system-  then  demands  K  69  72 .  Let  it  not  be  supposed  that  wo 
rely  mainly  on  medicines,  nor  even  on  medicinal  food,  to  cure 
diseases,  but  on  a  general  observance  of  the  laws  of  health, 
and  medicines,  in  food  and  out  of  it,  as  secondary  aids.  Na- 
ture is  our  great  physician.  Those  patients  who  put  them- 
selves under  her  treatment  may  rest  assured  of  a  speedy  a»d 
effectual  cure. 


THE    LAW   OF   PROPORTION.  273 


SECTION  II. 

BALANCE    OR    PROPORTION  AMONG   THE  FUNCTIONS  ESSENTIAL  TO 
HEALTH ITS  PRESERVATION  AND  RESTORATION. 

162.       PROPORTION    A    LAW    OF    NATURE. 

WHAT  but  PROPORTION  between  those  attractive  and  re^  ulsive 
forces  which  cause  the  motion  of  the  earth,  keeps  it  in  its 
orbit  ?  As  the  top  cf  the  tree  increases,  so  do  its  roots  ;  and 
any  great  amputation  of  either,  without  a  corresponding  prun- 
ing of  the  other,,  proves  injurious.  This  law  runs  through' 
out  the  vegetable  kingdom.  It  obtains. equally  in  the  animal 
economy.  Nature  requires  and  compels  us  to  breathe  the 
more  the  more  we  exercise.  Thus,  the  more  we  use  our 
muscles,  as  in  working  hard,  walking  fast,  or  up  hill,  running, 
lifting,  and  the  like,  the  more  we  must  breathe ;  the  increase 
of  respiration  being  exactly  in  proportion  to  that  of  muscular 
action.  Of  this  all  are  witnesses  every  time  they  increase  or 
diminish  their  exercise.  Nor  will  nature  allow  us  to  breathe 
copiously  without  proportionate  action  of  body  or  mind. 

This  law  applies  equally,  though  less  obviously,  to  food. 
Who  does  not  know  that  labor  and  all  kinds  of  exertion, 
whether  mental  or  physical,  enhance  the  digestion  as  well 
as  appetite  for  food  ?  Hence,  laborers  eat  more  than  seden- 
taries.  And  those  who  will  eat  more  than  do,  must  suffer. 
This  law  cannot  be  broken  with  impunity.  In  fact,  the  broken 
constitutions  of  most  of  those  who  go  from  the  farm  and  the 
workshop  to  college,  or  some  sedentary  occupation,  a/e  caused 
mainly  by  violating  this  law  of  proportion.  They  continue 
to  eat  as  before,  yet  do  not  work  off  that  food,  and  hence  the 
head-aches,  ennui,  debility,  nervousness,  dyspepsia,  and  kin- 
dred diseases  of  our  literary  and  sedentary  classes.  Study 
does  not  make  them  invalids,  but  is  actually  promotive  of 
health  and  longevity.  They  are  enfeebled  by  over-taxing 
their  stomachs  while  they  starve  their  muscles  for  want  of 
action. 


274  CURE    OF    DISEASE. 

Take  that  city  belle,  rendered  delicate,  nervous,  sickly, 
miserable,  by  excessive  nervous  and  cerebral  derangement 
consequent  on  novel  reading,  parties,  amusements,  and  all  the 
excitement  of  fashionable  city  life.  Medicines  can  never  cure 
her,  but  work  can.  Her  malady  consists  in  a  predominance 
of  nerve  over  muscle,  and  her  remedy  in  restoring  the  balance 
between  them.  She  is  doomed  either  to  wear  out  a  miserable 
existence,  or  else  to  EXERCISE  HER  MUSCLES  ;  nor  can  salvation 
come  from  any  other  source.  And  one  of  the  great  reasons 
why  journeyings,  visits  to  springs,  voyages,  and  the  like,  often 
effect  such  astonishing  cures,  is  that  they  relieve  the  nervous 
system,  and  at  the  same  time  increase  muscular  and  vital  action. 
The  same  exercise  taken  at  home,  will  cure  them  quite  as  speed- 
ily and  effectually  by  the  same  means — a  restoration  of  propor- 
tion between  their  functions.  Nine  in  every  ten  of  the  inva 
lids  of  our  land,  are  undoubtedly  rendered  feeble  by  this  one 
cause,  and  can  be  cured  by  labor.  How  many  thousands,  so 
weakly  and  sickly  that  they  begin  to  despair  of  life,  finally 
give  up  their  business  and  move  upon  a  farm,  and  soon  find 
themselves  well.  Exercise  has  often  cured  those  who  have 
been  bedridden  many  years,  as  seen  in  the  following. 

A  physician  of  some  repute  in  Lowell,  Mass.,  was  called 
thirty  miles  in  great  haste,  to  see  a  sick  woman,  whose  case 
had  thus  far  baffled  all  medical  treatment,  and  was  regarded 
by  all  her  friends  as  hopeless.  All  they  expected  was  merely 
to  mitigate  a  disease  of  long  standing :  recovery  being  con- 
sidered out  of  the  question.  The  doctor  came,  saw  that  she 
was  very  nervous,  and  had  been  dosed  almost  to  death,  and 
told  her  that  if  she  would  follow  his  directions  implicitly,  he 
could  cure  her  ;  for  he  had  one  kind  of  medicine  of  great 
power, -but  which  was  useful  only  in  cases  exactly  like  hers, 
in  which  it  was  an  infallible  cure.  After  telling  her  how 
often  she  must  take  it,  he  added,  that  she  must  get  up  and 
WALK  ACROSS  THE  ROOM  the  second  day,  and  RIDE  OUT  the 
third.  "  Oh,  that  she  could  never  do,  for  she  had  not  been 
off  her  bed  in  many  years,  and  was  so  very  weak,"  etc.,  etc. 
"Oh,  but,  said  the  doctor,  "this  medicine  will  give  you  so 
much  strength  that  you  wil".  be  able  to  do  so,  and  it  will  pre« 


THE    LAW    OF    PROPORTION.  275 

vent  any  injurious  consequences  arising  therefrom.  And,  be- 
sides," he  added,  "  the  medicine  will  not  operate,  unless  you 
stir  about  some.  Do  just  as  I  tell  you,  and  you  will  be  off 
your  bed  in  ten  days."  She  sent  an  express  thirty  miles,  the 
medicine  being  so  rare  that  he  did  not  take  it  with  him,  after 
his  bread  pills.;  rolled  in  aloes,  to  make  them  taste-  like  medi- 
cine, and  took  them  and  me  EXERCISE  as  prescribed,  and  the 
third  day  she  actually  got  into  a  carriage,  and  in  ten  days 
was  able  to  leave  her  bed,  and  soon  after  was  able  to  work, 
and  yet  lives  to  be  a  blessing  to  her  family,  and  to  pour  upon 
the  doctor  a  literal  flood  of  gratitude  for  performing  so  won- 
derful a  cure — a  cure  which  none  of  the  doctors  had  been 
able  to  effect,  and  which  nothing  but  restoring  the  lost  pro- 
portion between  her  nerves  and  muscles  could  have  effected. 
Nor  do  I  hesitate  to  affirm,  as  my  deliberate  conviction,  that 
nineteen-twentieths  of  the  invalids,  especially  females,  of  our 
land  are  rendered  so  mainly  by  excessive  nervous  and  deficient 
muscular  and  vital  action,  and  can  be  cured  by  -banishing 
care,  and  exercising  in  the  open  air. 

I  say  in  the  open  air,  because  many  are  rendered  invalids, 
not  by  want  of  sufficient  exercise,  but  by  insufficient  BREATH. 
Yet  females,  and  those  who  work  hard  in-doors  perpetually, 
such  as  clerks  in  packing,  unpacking,  etc.,  often  lose  their 
health  because  they  do  not  BREATHE  in  proportion  to  their  ex- 
ercise. That  is,  "they  inhale  rarefied  air,  and  thus  do  not  ob- 
tain a  supply  of  oxygen  adequate  to  its  consumption.  The 
object  of  breathing  is  to  obtain  this  oxygen,  and  the  reason 
why  we  breathe  the  more  the  more  we  exercise,  is  that  we 
obtain  the  more  oxygen.  But  when,  though  we  breathe  co- 
piously, we  do  not  obtain  a  due  supply  of  oxygen,  the  evil  is 
analogous  to  a  proportionate  suspension  of  breath 86.  Such 
should  work  less,  and  thus  preserve  the  proportion  between  the 
consumption  and  the  supply  of  oxygen. 

Consumptive  families  and  patients  furnish  another  illustra- 
tion of  this  principle.  Why  consumptive  ?  Because  their 
brains  and  nerves  predominate  over  their  vital  and  muscular 
apparatus,  as  is  evinced  by  the  fact  that  they  are  slim,  sharp- 
featured,  small-chested,  and  have  small  muscles,  great  sen- 


270  CUftE    OF    DISEASE. 

sitiveness,  in.cnse  feelings,  clear  heads,  and  fine  feelings 
This  DISPROPORTION  of  function  constitutes  their  consumptive 
tendency.  Restore  the  balance  and  you  obviate  the  tendency 
Or  thus,  their  lungs  are  too  small  for  their  brains.  Apoplexy 
gout,  obesity,  corpulency,  and  the  like,  are  caused  by  the  oppo 
site  extreme,  and  can  be  cured  by  eating  less  and  working  more 

Precocious  children  and  youth  furnish  still  another  illustra 
tion  of  our  doctrine.  How  frequent  the  expression  "  that 
child  is  too  sma'rt  to  live  ;"  because  general  observation  at- 
tests the  premature  death,  of  most  extra  smart  children.  Hear 
that  broken-hearted  mother  enumerate  the  virtues  of  her  de- 
parted child — tell  how  fond  of  books,  how  quick  to  learn,  how 
apt  in  his  remarks,  how  sweet-dispositioned  and  good,  all  pro- 
duced by  excessive  cerebral  action,  and  his  death  by  the  pre- 
dominance of  mind  over  body.  Its  head  ate  up  its  body.  As 
the  vital  energies  cannot  be  expended  twice,  and  as  an  ex- 
tremely active  brain  robs  the  muscles  and  vital  apparatus 78, 
the  latter  cease  to  grow,  become  feeble,  are  attacked  by  dis- 
ease, .and  die,  and  of  course  the  brain  also  dies.  And  such 
parents,  ignorant  of  this  principle,  too  often  ply  such  prodigies 
with  books  and  mental  stimulants,  and  thus  aggravate  the  dis- 
proportion and  hasten  death,  whereas  they  should  pursue  the 
OPPOSITE  course — should  use  every  exertion  to  restrain  cere- 
bral and  promote  muscular  action. 

Extra  talented  and  lovely  youth  are  also  more  mortal  than 
others.  The  flower  of  both  sexes  are  more  liable  to  die  young 
than  those  more  coarsely  organized — because  of  this  same 
preponderance  of  cerebral  over  muscular  and  vital  power.  A 
large  proportion  of  those  who  take  our  first  college  appoint- 
ments die  soon  after  they  graduate,  because  they  have  studied, 
studied, 'studied,  night  and  day,  year  in  and  year  out,  thus 
keeping  their  brains  continually  upon  the  stretch,  yet  using 
their  muscles  little  more  than  to  go  to  and  from  their  meals 
and  recitations.  Is  it  any  wonder  that  they  pay  the  forfeit  of 
impaired  health,  blighted  prospects,  and  premature  death  ? 
What  an  omission  that  their  entire  range  of  classical  studies 
should  not  embrace  as  important  a  law  as  this. 

The  working  classes  furnish  a  converse  illustration  of  this 


THE    LAW    CF    PROPORTION.  277 

law.  They  exercise  their  muscles  too  much  and  brains  too 
little.  They  labor,  eat,  and  sleep,  and  that  is  about  all.  To 
those  crowning  pleasures  of  humanity,  the  exercise  of  MIND, 
they  are  comparative  strangers.  Their  muscles  rob  their 
brains  as  effectually,  as  the  heads  of .  the  literari  rob  their 
bodies 7S.  If  they  sit  down  to  read,  or  listen  to  a  speaker, 
they  fall  asleep.  Their  finer  sensibilities  become  blunted  by 
inaction,  just  as  those  of  the  fashionable  classes  become  mor- 
bid by  over  action.  Their  minds  are  sluggish,  thinking  pow- 
ers obtuse,  feelings  hard  to  rouse,  and  all  their  capabilities  of 
enjoyment  partially  palsied,  because  most  of  their  energies 
ait3  directed  to  their  muscles.  Besides  this  loss  of  enjoyment, 
they  are  much  more  subject  to  actual  disease  than  they  would 
be  if  they  labored  less  and  studied  more. 

Slaves  furnish  still  another  illustration  of  the  violation  of 
this  law.  They  exercise  their  muscles  still  more,  relatively, 
and  their  brains  still  less,  books  and  study  being  prohibited.* 
Hence  no  small  share  of  their  admitted  mental  obtuseness. 
This  principles  also  applies  measurably  to  the  working  classes 
of  the  old  world.  Laborers  generally  might  live  many  years 
longer,  and  much  more  happily  if  they  worked  less  and 
studied  more. 

Unhealthy  trades,  as  shoemaking,  saddlery,  drawing,  paint- 
ing, sewing,  and  the  like,  are  generally  rendered  so  by  exer- 
cising only  a  portion  of  the  system,  and  can  be  rendered  sa- 
lubrious by  calling  into  vigorous  exercise  the  dormant  limbs 
and  muscles  an  hour  or  two  per  day  144.  To  seamstresses  this 
advice  is  particularly  applicable  and  important.  Sitting  for 
months  together  in  one  posture,  arched  inwardly  and  their 
shoulders  thrown  forward,  thus  doubly  impeding  respiration  85, 
digestion 77,  and  all  the  vital  functions,  at  the  same  time  taking 
next  to  no  exercise,  no  wonder  that  so  many  of  them  break  down 
even  while  learning  the  business,  and  sew  in  misery  for  life. 


*  Can  that  institution  be  "  all  right  "  which  represses  intellect  ? 
mind,  that  only  ultimate  end  of  human  creation  be  fettered  ?  The  unre- 
stricted exercise  of  intellect  is  as  inherent  a  right  of  every  human  being 
as  breath  or  sight. 

24 


278  CURE    OF    DISEASE. 

Let  such  walk  at  least  two  miles  per  day,  or  dance  an  hour  be 
fore  retiring  144;  and  also  sit  up  STRAIGHT  while  they  sew,  and 
it  will  not  injure  them.  They  should  also  restrict  their  diet. 

But  the  institutions  of  society  are  most  unfavorable  to  this 
required  proportion  of  muscular,  vital,  and  mental  action.  As 
things  now  are,  those  who  work  at  all,  work  excessively  ;  and 
as  labor  is  considered  a  disgrace  145,  all  who  can,  are  straining 
every  nerve  to  live  without  it.  Society  should  be  so  con- 
structed as  to  require  laborers  to  work  only  about  half  the  day, 
and  allow  them  the  balance  for  mental  and  moral  cultivation, 
while  the  literary,  sedentary,  and  fashionable  classes  should 
labor  several  hours  every  day,  if  not  for  wages,  at  least  ibr 
health.  The  fullest  measure  of  personal  happiness  requires 
that  all  should  appropriate  about  eight  hours  in  every  twenty- 
four  to  the  vital  apparatus — to  sleep  and  food,  or  the  supply  of 
exhausted  animal  energy — about  eight  hours  more  to  muscu- 
lar exercise,  mostly  in  the  form  of  manual,  productive  labor, 
and  about  eight  more  to  mental  cultivation  and  moral  improve- 
ment550. "  All  work  and  no  play,"  cuts  off  that  vast  range  of 
pleasure  designed  and  adapted  to  flow  into  the  soul  of  man 
through  the  channel  of  MIND  ;  and  continued  mental  appli- 
cation, by  concentrating  vitality  in  the  brain,  withdraws  it 
from  the  muscles,  stomach,  and  heart,  thus  impairing  respira- 
tion, circulation,  and  all  the  vital  functions,  and  of  course  cur- 
tails talent  and  even  life  itself,  while  epicures,  gentlemen  and 
ladies  of  leisure,  and  all  fashionable  idlers  rob  both  muscle 
and  brain,  so  that  all  these  classes  fail  to  obtain  the  great  end 
of  life — happiness2,  whereas,  if  all  would  labor  about  eight 
hours  per  day,  so  as  to  promote  all  the  animal  functions  and 
ensure  health,  they  would  thus  furnish  the  brain  and  nervous 
system  with  an  abundant  supply  of  that  animal  energy  so  in- 
dispensable to  mental  power,  and  thus  vastly  enhance  clear- 
ness of  thought,  retentiveness  of  memory,  intellectual  attain- 
ments, and  moral  excellence.  Nor  can  any  become  great  or 
good  without  MANUAL  LABOR.  Man  must  exercise  if  only  to 
keep  his  brain  in  working  order,  it  being  to  the  brain  what  the 
sharpening  of  his  tools  is  to  the  workman.  Laborers  plead 
that  they  have  no  time  to  work,  yet  they  should  TAKE  time. 


THE    LAW   OF   PROPCiTION.  279 

They  were  created  to  ENJOY  ;  and  since  they  can  enjoy  much 
more  by  commingling  study  with  labor,  practical  wisdom  re- 
quires that  they  make  mental  culture  as  much  a  part  of  their 
business  as  work.  Business  and  professional  men,  lawyers, 
ministers,  bankers,  brokers,  merchants,  clerks,  editors,  artists, 
etc.,  again  say  they  have  no  time  for  exercise,  but  let  such  re- 
member that  this  is  the  very  way  to  MAKE  time,  by  augmenting 
mental  efficiency,  and  especially  prolonging  their  lives.  The 
result  is  that  our  business,  fashionable,  and  sedentary  classes 
have  a  great  preponderance  of  the  mental  temperament  over 
the  vital  and  muscular,  and  hence  are  delicate,  sharp- favored, 
homely,  excitable,  dyspeptic,  nervous,  melancholy  invalids, 
living  but  a  short  and  that  a  miserable  life,  while  the  working 
classes,  though  endowed  by  nature  with  excellent  heads,  yet 
lack  that  cultivation  requisite  to  the  development  of  their 
natural  talents  and  virtues. 

Were  the  sole  object  of  my  life  to  see  how  long  I  could  live, 
or  even  how  happily,  I  would  divide  each  twenty-four  hours 
into  three  parts,  and  devote  eight  hours  to  sleep,  rest,  and 
meals  ;  eight  more  to  vigorous  exercise,  or  rather,  hard  labor  j 
and  the  balance  to  the  exercise  of  mind,  uniting  the  last  two 
whenever  practicable.  Or,  even  were  my  object  to  become 
intellectually  great  or  learned  ;  or  were  health  my  object ;  or 
were  all  these  combined,  I  would  pursue  the  same  course. 
Burritt,  the  learned  blacksmith,  is  often  referred  to  as  an  in- 
tellectual prodigy.  He  certainly  is  the  wonder  of  the  learned 
world.  Besides  understanding  more  than  fifty  languages,  he 
has  accumulated  a  richer  treasure  of  historical  and  miscella- 
neous information,  than  probably  any  man  living,  and  yet,  in 
his  letter  to  ex-Governor  Everett,  he  states  that  his  poverty 
compelled  him  to  labor  at  the  anvil  EIGHT  HOURS  DAILY.  This 
is  the  one  main  secret  of  his  greatness.  "  Go  thou  and  do 
likewise,"  and  train  up  your  children,  too,  in  harmony  with 
this  principle. 

163.    GROWING    YOUTH    AN    EXCEPTION    TO    THIS    LAW. 

Since  youth  requires  a  great  expenditure  of  vital  energy 
during  adolescence,  the  vitality .  should  predominate  over  tho 


280  CUBi    OF    DISEASE. 

mentality.  The  order  of  rTature  requires  that  the  great  pro 
portion  of  their  vital  energies  should  be  expended  in  laying  a 
deep  and  broad  foundation  for  a  corresponding  superstructure 
of  mental  greatness,  and  every  item  of  vitality  required  oy  the 
body  but  expended  on  the  mind  only  weakens  both.  The 
great  fault  of  modern  education  is  robbing  the  body  to  de 
velope  the  mind — trying  to  make  learned  babies  and  nurse rj 
prodigies  at  the  expense  of  health.  In  doing  this,  parents  of 
ten  make  them  simpletons  for  life,  or  else  youthful  corpses 
As  when  the  miser  had  learned  his  horse  to  live  without  eat 
ing,  it  died  ;  so  just  as  these  children  become  extra  smart,  they 
die.  Where  are  those  poetic  geniuses  the  Misses  Davidson? 
In  their  graves  at  fifteen  !  What  folly  parental  vanity  often 
perpetrates !  Better  no  education  than  such  robbing  of  the 
body,  ruin  of  the  health,  and  destruction  of  life.  Especially 
better  to  ripen  too  late  than  too  early.  Throughout  nature, 
"  late  ripe,  late  rotten."  As  early  fruits  soon  decay,  but  late 
ones  keep  all  winter,  and  as  the  poplar  tree,  and  all  vegeta- 
bles which  grow  fast,  die  soon,  while  the  slow-growing  oak 
and  pine  last  long,  and  do  much  more  service,  so  it  is  much 
better  that  children  ripen  late  than  early.  So  certain  and 
uniform  is  this  law,  that  the  length  of  life  of  all  animals  can 
be  calculated  from  the  age  at  which  they  come  to  maturity. 
This  law  governs  all  that  grows,  man  as  a  race,  arid  every 
individual  included.  Accordingly,  long-lived  persons  mature 
late,  and  our  most  talented  men  were  backward  boys.  Adam 
Clarke  was  a  very  blockhead  at  school — an  eyesore  to  his 
teacher,  and  a  butt  among  his  mates.  And  what  was  young 
Patrick  Henry?  The  dullest  of  the  dull.  Most  distinguished 
men  of  all  ages  were  backward  boys ;  and  in  general,  they 
entered  on  their  career  of  greatness  late  in  life.  Let  my 
children  be  children  till  out  of  their  teens,  and  enter  too  late 
upon  the  business  of  life  rather  than  too  early.  This  eager- 
ness of  our  youth  to  begin  life  early  occasions  immense  mis- 
ery. I  would  not  leave  the  minds  of  my  children  an  unculti- 
vated waste,  yet  I  would  expend  only  their  SURPLUS  vitality  in 
either  study  or  labor,  nor  sacrifice  one  iota  of  health  to  men- 
ial acquirements.  The  brains  of  children  are  soft,  and  their 


EXC2SS    OF    CARBON.  281 

nerves  less  sensitive  to  burns,  bruises,  colds,  and  hurts,  than 
those  of  adults.  The  nervous  system  is  the  last  to  mature, 
and  last  to  yield  to  the  approaches  of  age  and  of  a  natural  death. 
Hence  little  pains  should  be  taken  to  cultivate  the  intellect 
until  nature  has  fully  matured  the  brain  and  nervous  system. 
Some  species  of  animals,  the  dog  included,  are  born  blind. 
What  consummate  folly  to  cut  open  their  eyes,  or  put  on 
glasses,  or  attempt  to  make  them  see  by  artificial  means  be- 
fore their  natural  time  !  Let  nature  have  her  perfect  work. 
Follow  where  she  leads  ;  but  never  precede  her.  Let  your 
first  labor  be  to  give  them  STRONG  CONSTITUTIONS,  and  to  lay  in 
as  large  a  supply  of  physical  energy  as  possible.  You  may 
cultivate  their  intellects,  but  not  so  much  as  to  withdraw  their 
energies  from  growth.  Let  intellectual  attainments  be  what 
nature  has  made  them,  SECONDARY,  in  point  of  time.  Would 
you  not  lose  by  hurrying  your  fruit-trees  into  bloom  so  early 
lhat  the  frosts  of  spring  would  certainly  nip  the  bud  ? 

164.       EXCESS    OF    CARBON    A    PROLIFIC    CAUSE    OF    DISEASE. 

If  this  great  law  of  health — proportion  of  function — requires 
confirmation,  it  is  to  be  found  in  the  number  and  aggravation 
of  those  diseases  engendered  by  an  excess  of  carbon  in  the 
system.  Why  do  northerners  sicken  at  the  South  ?  Because 
they  continue  to  eat  as  freely  as  before,  yet,  since  a  given 
quantity  of  oxygen  can  combine  with  no  more  than  its  fixed 
equivalent  of  carbon,  and  since  a  warmer  and  therefore  more 
rarefied  atmosphere  prevents  iheir  inhaling  as  much  oxygen 
is  at  the  North,  they  of  course  evacuate  less  carbon  from  the 
system  by  respiration  than  they  take  into  it  by  eating  and  drink- 
ing. A  surfeit  of  carbon  is  the  necessary  consequence,  and 
this  induces  those  malignant  fevers  which  prevail  in  tropical 
climates.  Southern  emigrants  who  eat  less  and  bathe  much 
escape,  because  they  occasion  no  such  glut  of  carbon,  and  all 
who  "  move  South,"  besides  eating  less,  should  eat  food  less 
highly  carbonized,  for  the  same  reasons  that  we  should  eat  less, 
and  less  highly  carbonized  food,  in  the  summer  than  winter. 

The  summer  complaints  of  children  have  the  same  cause — 
excess  of  carbon.  This  is  rendered  evident  by  the  fact  that 
•24* 


262  CURE    OF    DISEASE. 

they  prevail  most  in  hot  weather,  and  diminish  as  the  cool  sea- 
son approaches,  because  they  then  inhale  more  oxygen,  and 
thus  consume  more  carbon,  thus  partially  restoring  the  pro- 
portion between  the  two.  And  if  parents  would  administer 
less  food,  and  that  less  carbonated,  to  children  during  the 
summer  months,  many  who  now  sicken  and  die  would  escape. 
Hence  give  such  little  if  any  butter,  fat,  or  sweets,  because 
they  all  contain  a  great  proportion  of  already  superabundant 
carbon. 

Dyspepsia  consists  mainly  in  this  same  carbonic  surplus — 
also  established  by  the  improvement  generally  consequent  on 
the  approach  of  cold  weather.  And  all  whose  health  is  better 
in  the  fall  and  winter  than  spring  and  summer,  may  rely  upon 
it  that  their  maladies  are  occasioned  by  surplus  carbon,  that 
is,  over-eating. 

And  what  is  the  consumptive  process  but  one  of  an  ex- 
cess of  carbon  over  oxygen  ?  As  the  lungs  waste  away,  they 
afford  a  less  surface  for  oxyge-nating  the  blood.  Of  course  less 
carbon  is  burnt  up,  the  body  is  cold,  and  the  system  decays. 
Let  such  be  doubly  particular  to  reduce  their  eating  and  en- 
hance their  breathing.  Of  what  use  is  any  more  carbon  than 
can  be  burnt  up  by  respiration  ?  And  as  their  stomachs  are 
more  vigorous  than  the  lungs,  of  course  they  should  eat  less 
than  they  crave. 

These  views  are  still  farther  sustained  by  the  chymical 
analysis  of  the  putrid  matter  of  biles,  fever-sores,  ulcers,  dis- 
^ased  lungs,  and  the  like — it  containing  about  fifty-four  per 
cent,  of  carbon.  Indeed,  most  obstructions,  irritations,  in- 
flammations, and  the  like,  will  doubtless  be  found  to  consist 
mainly  in  its  surplus.  These  abscesses  may  therefore  fairly 
be  considered  as  the  outlets  of  that  surplus  carbon  which  oc- 
casioned them.  Hence  their  beneficial  influence.  Hence, 
also,  butter,  fat,  sweets,  and  other  highly  carbonated  sub- 
stances, provoke  biles  and  cutaneous  eruptions.  So  do  high 
living  and  over-eating. 

These  proofs  of  our  doctrine  of  proportion  might  be  ex- 
tended inimitably,  but  is  it  not  too  obvious  to  require  it  ? 
Does  it  not  unfold  a  FUNDAMENTAL  condition  of  health  and 


EXHAUSTION.  283 

cause  of  disease  ?  Is  any  other  equally  essential  to  mental 
or  physical  capability  ?  And  if  physicians  understood  this 
law,  and  labored  to  restore  that  lost  balance  which  occasioned 
the  disease,  instead  of  dosing  down  powerful  drugs,  they 
would  save  a  large  proportion  of  those  patients  whom  they  lose. 
And  if  mankind  in  general  would  preserve  or  restore  this  pro- 
portion, if  the  sedentary  and  fashionable  would  study  and  fret 
less,  but  take  more  exercise,  laborers  rest  and  read  more, 
those  who  have  over-eaten  would  fast,  and  those  who  sit  much 
in-doors  would  exercise  much  in  the  open  air,  the  great  ma- 
jority of  chronic  invalids  would  soon  be  gladdened  by  return- 
ing health,  that  most  dreadful  penalty  of  violated  law — death 
— be  postponed  a  score  or  two  of  years,  every  faculty  of  body 
and  mind  be  incalculably  enhanced,  and  their  pains  sup- 
planted by  pleasures.  PROPORTION  between  the  eating  and 
breathing,  and  between  these  two  and  muscular  action,  and 
between  all  three  and  the  exercise  of  mind  and  feeling,  will 
ensure  the  observers  of  this  law  a  high  order  of  intellectual 
capability,  moral  excellence,  and  a  long  and  happy  life. 
And  the  application  of  this  law  to  the  mental  faculties  will 
constitute  much  of  the  frame  work  of  the  next  volume.  Next 
in  order,  strictly  speaking,  comes  the  MEANS  OF  SECURING 
THIS  BALANCE  :  yet  we  wish  first  to  present  another  aspect  of 
this  law  itself,  namely, 

165.       EXHAUSTION    AS    INVITING    DISEASE. 

Exhaustion,  temporary  and  permanent,  physical  and  men- 
tal, consists  in  a  deficient  supply  of  vitality  as  compared  with 
its  expenditure,  and  hence  in  the  violation  of  this  law  of  bal- 
ance, and  occasions  an  almost  incalculable  amount  of  disease. 
Vitality  resists  disease  in  proportion  to  its  abundance.  As  an 
active  skin  nullifies  exposures  to  colds  which  overcome  a  fee- 
ble one,  so  strong  constitutions  withstand  exposures  which 
would  break  down  weak  ones.  Take  an  example.  While 
full  of  vitality  and  animal  vigor,  say  in  the  morning,  wet  feet; 
malaria,  noxious  gases,  contagion  of  various  kinds,  extreme 
cold,  or  exposures,  are  resisted  with  impunity,  whereas  when 
fatigued,  deprived  of  sleep,  or  hungry,  comparatively  trifling 


284  CURE    OF    DISEASE 

exposures  overcome  the  system  and  sickness  ensues.  Keep  on 
a  full  head  of  vitality  and  it  will  both  resist  and  also  eject  dis. 
ease.  This  is  confirmed  by  the  fact  that  we  rarely  sicken 
suddenly,  but  are  ailing  more  or  less  for  days  or  weeks  before- 
hand, because  debility,  by  cutting  off  the  supply  of  vitality, 
leaves  the  system  too  feeble  to  resist  renewed  exposures. 
Even  in  apoplectic,  and  other  sudden  attacks,  disease  has  been 
undermining  the  system  perhaps  for  years.  Most  forms  of 
disease,  taken  in  season,  can  be  thrown  off  at  once,  and  pro- 
tracted illness  averted.  Extreme  and  protracted  exhaustion 
generally  precedes  and  induces  consumption,  many  of  its 
victims  having  first  worn  themselves  completely  out  just  before 
being  taken  down  \  whereas  but  for  such  exhaustion  they 
would  have  escaped.  Many  a  one  has  been  prostrated  by 
disease  after  having  watched  day  and  night  around  the  sick 
bed,  not,  as  generally  supposed,  because  the  disease  was  con- 
tagious, but  because  their  exhaustion  left  the  gates  of  life  open 
to  the  ingress  of  the  enemy.  That  excessive  labor  invites 
disease  is  a  matter  of  general  experience  and  observation. 
How  many,  after  seasons  of  unusually  protracted  and  arduous 
labor,  first  became  debilitated  and  then  sick.  American  females 
in  particular,  contract  many  of  their  diseases  in  consequence  of 
protracted  exhaustion,  occasioned  by  undue  confinement  with- 
in doors,  late  hours,  restless  children  and  consequent  depriva- 
tion of  sleep,  perpetual  kitchen  drudgery,  unintermitting  toil, 
and  kindred  causes ;  and  many  chronic  invalids  can  be  cureo 
simply  by  rest  and  recreation,  whose  case  medicines  can  nevei 
reach.  They  have  expended  animal  energy  faster  than  sup, 
plied  it,  become  debilitated,  are  thus  exposed  to  disease,  an* 
can  be  restored  only  by  restoring  the  equilibrium  of  the  system 
To  one  application  of  this  idea  special  attention  is  invitee 
— $o  the  absolute  necessity  of  providing  a  RE-SUPPLY  of  vi 
tality.  This  exhaustion  so  fatal  to  health,  so  prolific  of  dis 
ease,  is  not  generally  occasioned  by  too  great  an  EXPENDITURE 
as  much  as  by  an  undue  SUPPLY  of  vitality.  Invalids  migh* 
expend  much  more  than  they  do  with  impunity,  provided  they 
would  -promote  its  RE-SUPPLY  by  obeying  the  laws  of  health 
Like  a  poor  farmer,  they  take  all  off  but  put  nothing  on, 


RESTORATION    OF    BALANCE.  285 

whereas  if  they  kept  up  a  full  supply  of  vitality  they  could 
greatly  increase  all  their  labors,  yet  not  overdo. 

166.       RESTORATION    OF    THIS    PROPORTION. 

This  balance  once  lost,  can  it  be  restored  ?  It  can.  Every 
function  can  be  promoted  and  retarded.  Indeed,  nature's  uni- 
versal tendency  is  to  secure  this  restoration.  As  over-taxed  or- 
gans rob  the  others  to  obtain  vitality  with  which  to  discharge 
their  load 78,  so  strong  organs  succor  weak  ones.  Besides  this, 
that  same  restorative  principle  which  has  provided  remedial 
agents  in  general  158,  has  also  provided  for  the  removal  of  this 
cause  of  disease.  By  what  MEANS,  then,  can  an  end  thus  im- 
portant be  secured  ? 

One  means  is  by  diet 36  37.  Another  is  by  EXERCISE.  By  a 
law  of  things,  the  normal  action  of  any  organ  augments  its 
power.  Of  this  all  are  experimental  witnesses.  The  hands 
of  sailors  become  large  and  powerful  because  used  energeti- 
cally and  vigorously  in  clinging  to  the  rigging  and  handling 
ropes,  and  a  similar  increase  is  apparent  in  all  labors.  The 
arms  of  the  blacksmith,  the  feet  of  expert  dancers  and  pedes- 
trians, the  chests  of  habitual  rowers,  the  muscles  of  laborers, 
compared  with  those  of  the  sedentary  and  fashionable  classes, 
all  manifest  a  similar  increase,  and  by  the  same  means.  Let 
any  man  having  large  and  powerful  muscles  confine  himself 
to  writing  or  books  for  years,  and  his  muscles  will  decline  in 
size  and  strength,  but  re-increase  if  he  again  returns  to  a  labo- 
rious occupation. 

The  reason  of  this  increase  by  exercise  is  apparent.  Ac- 
tion causes  a  proportionate  flow  of  blood  to  any  and  all  the 
parts  exercised,  and  this  blood  is  freighted  with  the  materials 
for  the  supply  wasted.  And  since  this  resupply  is  commen- 
surate with  the  exhaustion,  of  course  the  parts  exercised  most 
grow  the  fastest. 

But  the  increased  POWER  OF  FUNCTION  is  far  greater  than 
that  of  size.  Thus  let  a  new  hand  go  into  the  blacksmith's 
shop,  and  the  muscles  of  his  arms  grow  rapidly,  yet  improve 
in  EFFICIENCY  far  more  than  in  size,  and  thus  of  all  other  ex- 
ercised parts. 


286  CURE    OF   DISEASES. 

To  apply  this  law  to  the  lui.gs.  A  man  of  only  ordinary 
vocal  strength  becomes  a  chimney-sweep,  or  street-pedler  in 
our  cities,  so  that  he  is  obliged  to  hallo  perpetually,  and  he 
soon  acquires  a  strength  of  lungs  and  power  of  voice  which 
resound  above  the  clatter  of  carnages,  and  all  the  din  and  roai 
of  the  most  thronged  streets.  Take  oyster  pedlers  as  exam- 
pics.  And  this  tremendous  bellowing  they  put  forth  hour  aftei 
hour,  day  after  day,  and  month  after  month,  year  in  and  yeai 
out.  Behold  the  astonishing  increase  of  vocal  power  conse 
quent  on  EXERCISE. 

The  gastronomic  powers  of  gluttons65,  furnish  another  illus 
tration  of  this  law  of  increase  by  exercise.  Men  can  divert 
nearly  all  the  energies  of  their  system  to  their  stomachs.  Yet 
our  subject  is  too  apparent  to  require  enlargement.  Weak 
organs  CAN  be  strengthened,  and  to  an  astonishing  degree. 
The  only  remaining  question  then  is — -How  can  such  action 
be  promoted  ? 

167.       WHO  REQUIRE  MUSCULAR  ACTION,  AND  HOW  TO  PROMOTE  IT. 

Whoever  is  benefited  by  exercise,  feels  better  after  taking 
it,  sleeps  more  sweetly,  experiences  an  increase  of  appetite,  or 
additional  clearness  of  mind  or  agreeableness  of  disposition, 
requires  more,  as  indeed  all  whose  business  confines  them 
much  within  doors,  and  also  those  who  feel  a  craving  for  mo- 
tion. To  determine  whether  we  need  it  is  just  as  easy  as  to 
determine  whether  we  require  food,  and  by  a  similar  index — 
an  APPETITE  for  it. 

To  show  HOW  to  exercise  would  be  superfluous.  All  re- 
quired is  to  administer  a  few  cautions.  Sedentaries,  convinced 
of  their  need  of  it,  often  take  it  in  excess,  or  unseasonably,  01 
too  violently.  That  same  appetite  which  demands  it,  closely 
watched,  will  admonish  the  instant  this  occurs,  when  the 
patient  should  desist  AT  ONCE.  A  kind  of  trembling,  hurried, 
excited,  and  yet  weakened  state  of  the  muscles,  so  that  instead 
of  playing  easily  and  voluntarily,  they  must  be  FORCED,  indi- 
cates excess,  which  always  injures.  Stop  exercise  the  instant 
such  trembling  commences. 


HOW   TO    PROMOTE    DIGESTION.  287 

It  should  be  taken  when  the  system  is  prepared  to  sustain  it, 
and  is  often  beneficial  after  severe  mental  application.  Before 
meals,  especially  before  breakfast,  is  generally  a  good  season. 
Just  before  retiring  is  a  good  time,  when  it  has  not  been  taken 
during  the  day,  and  by  those  who  resort  to  in-door  exercise* 
'•'  Better  late  than  never." 

Its  kind  should  also  be  such  as  to  develop  all  the  muscles. 
That  same  law  of  balance  just  illustrated  requires  that  every 
muscle  in  the  body  should  be  exercised  every  day  of  our 
lives. 

Yet  some  work  too  hard,  so  that  their  muscles  rob  their 
brains,  and  thus  become  stupid  in  mind,  averse  to  study, 
drowsy  over  books,  and  blunted  in  their  finer  sensibilities. 
Such  should  work  less — should  perhaps  restrain  their  craving 
for  action,  just  as  those  who  over- eat  should  restrain  appetite. 

But  having  enforced  the  necessity  of  muscular  action  in 
general I3S  13S  141,  and  also  the  necessity  of  proportion  of  func- 
tion 1G2,  and  by  consequence  the  double  importance  of  exercise 
to  those  whose  muscles  have  become  enfeebled  by  inaction, 
we  come  next  to 

168.      THE    PROMOTION    OF    DIGESTION. 

The  opinion  has  already  been  expressed,  that  colds  and  in- 
digestion were  the  great  causes  of  the  diseases  of  our  cli- 
mate l08 ;  and  also  that  most  diseases  consist  in  disproportion 
of  function  IC2.  Both  colds  and  dyspepsia  are  embraced  in  this 
want  of  balance.  Though  dyspepsia  itself  rarely  terminates 
life,  yet  it  is  the  parent  of  many  diseases  that  do.  It  fills  the 
system  with  morbid  matter,  unfit  to  take  part  in  the  vital  pro- 
cess, and  therefore  irritates  and  fevers  both  body  and  brain. 
How  indigestion  breeds  corruption  and  disease  has  already 
been  explained  76.  The  amount  is  almost  incredible.  Take 
a  single  illustration.  The  breath  of  dyspeptics  is  always 
foetid,  because  of  the  corruption  thrown  off  through  the  lungs. 
Suppose  yourself  compelled  to  inhale  all  the  odor  or  obnoxious 
matter  in  the  breath  of  many  a  dyspeptic,  it  would  soon  .sicken, 
if  not  destroy  you.  Yet  you  would  inspire  no  more  than  they 
expire  How  vas;  an  amount  of  corruption  and  animal  poison 


298  CURE    OF    DISEASE. 

some  breathe  out  every  hour  of  their  lives !  But  no  more 
than  their  disordered  stomachs  manufacture.  Yet  all  is 
not  expelled.  All  the  evacuations  put  together  cannot  unload 
it  as  fast  as  it  is  engendered,  and  hence  it  gathers  on  the 
lungs  and  brain  in  the  form  of  phlegm,  oppresses  the  lungs, 
irritates  them,  and  engenders  consumptions,  fevers,  and  all 
sorts  of  complaints.  Dyspeptics  expectorate  most  while  sufl 
fering  from  indigestion,  because  the  salivary  glands  are  closely 
inter-related  with  the  stomach,  and  hence  the  mucus  conse- 
quent on  indigestion.  Hence  all  bad-tasting  phlegm  should 
always  be  SPIT  OUT,  never  swallowed,  yet  sweet-tasted  spittle 
should  be  swallowed  64. 

But  it  is  on  the  nervous  system  and  brain  that  dyspepsia 
exerts  its  most  deleterious  influences.  The  corruption  and 
rank  poison  it  engenders  cannot  but  lash  up  both  nerves  and 
brain  to  abnormal  and  therefore  painful  action.  Dyspeptics 
always  feel  irresolute,  gloomy,  and  wretched,  in  proportion  as 
their  disease  is  aggravated,  however  favorable  for  enjoyment 
all  their  external  circumstances.  I  should  disdain  the  fortune 
of  an  ASTOR  if  indigestion  accompanied  its  reception.  How- 
ever  wealthy,  or  respected,  or  beloved,  or  otherwise  capacitated 
for  enjoyment,  they  are  poor,  miserable  creatures — poor,  -be- 
cause they  cannot  enjoy,  however  much  they  may  possess  of 
the  bounties  of  nature,  and  miserable,  because  this  disease 
turns  even  their  facilities  for  happiness  into  occasions  of  pain. 
They  would  go  mourning  even  in  paradise.  Brother  dyspep- 
tics, I  pity  you  from  my  inmost  soul.  Twenty  tedious  years 
have  I  experienced  its  prostrating  tortures,  but  am  gradually 
exchanging  its  sour  grapes  for  the  sweet  fruits  of  restored 
digestion.  Listen  while  I  tell  you  how  to  unloose  its  fetters 
and  extricate  yourself  from  its  vassalage. 

Whether  your  complaints  are  caused  by  indigestion  may 
be  known  by  some  of  its  signs.  It  generally  emaciates. 
And  those  who  are  perpetually  growing  more  and  more  thin- 
favored,  and  specially  sinking  in  at  the  abdomen  and  cheeks, 
may  know  that  this  disease  is  approaching  ;  as  may  also  all 
who  feel  a  gnawing,  sunken,  fainting,  "  gone  "  sensation  at 
the  stomach,  o*  are  unable  to  postpone  their  meals  without  in* 


LXLIGESTION.  289 

convenience,  or  who  feel  a  ravenous  appetite  and  still  con- 
tinue to  crave  after  they  have  eaten  freely ;  or  who  feel  pros- 
trated* inefficient,  listless,  misanthropic,  or  unusually  irritable 
and  fretful ;  or  who  belch  up  wind  frequently — it  being  a 
gas  formed  on  the  stomach  by  the  souring  of  their  food  70 — or 
who  feel  misanthropic,  hating,  and  hateful.  Dyspeptics  are 
perpetually  cramming,  yet  virtually  starving,  because  their 
stomachs  do  not  extract  from  food  its  nutrition,  and,  paradox- 
ical as  it  may  seem,  the  more  they  eat  the  more  they  starve. 

Besides  being  hollow-cheeked,  and  lank  in  the  abdomen, 
they  are  generally  costive.  This  is  occasioned  by  the  slug- 
gishness of  the  stomach  and  bowels ;  and  the  removal  of  this 
single  symptom  or  effect  of  this  disease  will  generally  obviate 
this  disease  itself. 

169.       CONSTIPATION ITS    EVILS    AND    REMEDY. 

Its  evils  are  quite  as  great  as  generally  represented.  It 
closes  one  important  outlet  of  the  waste  matter  of  the  system, 
which  health  requires  to  be  kept  open  at  some  rate.  Yet  not 
by  medicines;  for  they  excite  only  temporarily,. and  leave  the 
bowels  weaker  than  they  found  them,  so  that  increased 
doses  are  required  to  re-open  them.  Never  resort  to  ANY 
kind  of  medicine,  not  even  rhubarb,  for  a  cure,  but  rely 
wholly  on  DIET  and  MOTION.  Many  kinds  of  food  are  highly 
aperient.  Fruit  always  has  this  effect ;  yet  thus  opened,  the 
bowels  do  not  relax  into  increased  lethargy.  Coarse,  unbolted 
bread  is  still  more  so.  Hence,  many  are  obliged  to  eat  it 
sparingly,  because  it  is  too  opening.  Its  bran  stimulates  the 
coats  of  the  alimentary  canal,  besides  increasing  the  fsecial 
bulk.  Dyspeptics  should  always  eat  freely  of  it  in  conjunc- 
tion with  fruit,  and  may  thus  cure  the  most  obdurate  cases. 
Buttermilk  is  another  powerful  cathartic,  and  used  with  bran 
6read  will  be  found  efficacious.  Rye  and  Indian  bread  is 
quite  as  opening,  and  all  rye  is  excellent,  and  the  more  aperient 
fhe  more  bran  is  left  in.  A  pudding  made  by  stirring  un- 
oolted  rye  flour  into  bofling  water,  eaten  with  molasses, 
sugar,  milk,  or  fruit-sauce,  will  be  found  most  excellent.  So 
rfill  Indian  and  oat-meal  pudding,  eaten  with  molasses  or 
25 


290  CURE    OF    DISEASE. 

fruit-sauce.  Rhubarb  sauce,  and  pies,  if  their  crusts  are  made 
just  rfght,  and  also  nuts,  are  still  more  opening.  So  is  cider 
fresh  Trom  the  press.  So  is  lemonade.  In  fact,  the  dietetic 
kingdom  is  full  of  aperient  agents  endowed  with  quite  as  much 
power  as  cathartic  medicines,  and  hence  the  former  should 
always  be  resorted  to,  because  they  leave  the  bowels  in  a  more 
healthy  and  active  state,  whereas  every  dose  of  medicine  ulti- 
mately weakens  and  binds.  Whenever  cathartics  are  needed 
let  them  be  taken  IN  FOOD,  rarely  in  medicine. 

INTESTINAL  MOTION,  whether  effected  by  kneading  the 
bowels,  or  by  bodily  exercise,  also  obviates  both  indigestion 
and  constipation.  A  few  years  ago  an  infallible  cure  for 
dyspepsia  was  proffered  on  two  conditions — strict  secrecy  and 
a  high  fee.  It  consisted  simply  in  kneading,  and  otherwise 
giving  motion  to  the  bowels.  For  dyspeptics,  exercise,  and 
especially  those  kinds  which  call  the  abdominal  muscles  into 
play,  will  be  found  a  specific  cure.  Fomentations  applied  to 
the  bowels  are  excellent.  So  are  cloths  wrung  out  of  water 
as  hot  as  can  be  borne,  and  laid  on  them,  and  changed  every 
half  hour.  Water  injections,  cold  and  warm,  are  still  better — 
in  fact,  are  infallible  cures,  if  continued.  Putting  the  thumbs 
across  the  hips,  and  extending  the  fingers  forward  to,  and 
kneading  the  abdomen  is  also  excellent,  as  are  all  forms  of 
rubbing,  kneading,  and  friction,  and  striking  them  with  the 
hands  or  fists.  Copious  draughts  of  cold  water  on  an  empty 
stomach  will  help  this  complaint.  Laying  on  cloths  wet  in 
vinegar,  and  rubbing  them  with  an  iron  as  hot  as  can  be 
borne,  will  do  great  good. 

REGULARITY  IN  THE  EVACUATIONS  is  scarcely  less  impor- 
tant than  this  whole  subject  of  diet.  Every  individual,  and 
particularly  the  costive,  should  see  to  it  that  the  bowels  move 
every  day,  and  this  can  easily  be  secured  by  attending  to  this 
function  at  stated  periods  each  day,  as  on  rising,  or  after 
breakfast,  or  dinner,  or  supper,  and  the  earlier  the  better.  A 
little  attention  to  the  formation  of  regularity  in  this  matter, 
will  effectually  obviate  constipation,  and  do  much  towards 
restoring  digestion.  Mothers  should  form  this  habit  in  child- 
hood, and  all  should  practice  it  till  it  becomes  second  nature, 


THE   PROMOTION    OF    DIGESTION.  291 

/ 

Neglecting  to  attend  to  this  ca/1  of  nature,  and  to  a  kindred 
evacuation,  occasions  more  disease  and  suffering  than  can 
well  be  imagined — the  former  costiveness  and  all  its  attendant 
evils,  and  the  latter  gravel  and  its  sufferings. 

Dyspepsia  is  generally  accompanied  by  acidity  of  the 
stomach,  caused  by  that  souring  of  the  food  in  it  already 
explained.  This  acidity  can  and  should  be  removed.  One 
means  is  by  taking  those  kinds  of  food  and  chymical  agents 
which  will  neutralize  it.  Alkalies  will  sometimes  do  this, 
yet  they  are  better  taken  in  saleratus  bread,  which  is  far 
better  for  dyspeptics  than  yeast  bread s4.  Oyster-shells,  baked 
and  powdered,  are  also  highly  recommended,  and  may  be 
useful.  That  they  often  neutralize  the  acids  of  the  stomach 
is  evinced  by  the  wind  the}'  bring  up.  Yet^do  they  not  leave 
a  deleterious  compound  in  its  place  ?  Still  they  often  do  at 
least  temporary  good.  Weak  ley,  made  from  clean  wood 
ashes,  has  a  kindred  effect. 

Some  acids  decompose  other  acids,  and  hence  some  stomatic 
acidities  may  be  cured  by  taking  the  right  kinds  of  acids. 
Yet  I  incline  to  the  opinion  that  the  acids  found  in  fruits  are 
far  preferable  for  this  purpose.  Hence,  lemons  often  improve 
the  tone  of  the  stomach;  and  when  they  do,  should  be  eaten 
freely  before  meals,  or  in  food.  Hence,  also,  lemonade  is 
often  a  highly  beneficial  drink  for  dyspeptics,  and  should  be 
drank,  not  in  gills,  but  by  the  pint,  when  it  produces  a  com- 
fortable feeling  in  the  stomach.  And  I  fully  believe  that 
chymistry  will  yet  discover  a  means  of  detecting  the  kind  of 
acid  in  the  stomach,  and,  of  course,  some  kind  of  food  or 
medicine  which  will  effectually  neutralize  it — an  application 
of  animal  chymistry  of  great  practical  importance,  and  which 
some  of  us  will  undoubtedly  live  to  see  made.  There  are 
doubtless  effectual  antidotes  in  nature,  and  especially  in  food, 
exactly  adapted  to  remove  any  species  of  stomatic  disorder  by 
neutralizing  or  carrying  off*  the  noxious  compound.  In  fact, 
I  fully  believe  that  science  will  yet  discover  particular  kinds 
of  food  which  will  effectually  counteract  every  and  all  dis- 
ordered states  of  the  whole  body.  To  illustrate.  That  rank 
ooison,  corrosive  sublimate,  if  I  mistake  not,  can  be  at  oner 


292  CURE    OF    DISEASE. 

neutralized  by  eating  soap  freely,  or  swallowing  any  alkali  in 
large  quantities.  The  poisonous  virus  infused  into  the  system 
by  the  bites  of  mad  dogs,  and  poisonous  snakes,  can  be  effect- 
ually neutralized  by  taking  certain  chymical  agents  recently 
discovered,  of  which  I  think  vinegar  is  one.  Now  I  fully  be- 
lieve that  mankind  will  yet  discover  some  such  antidote  for 
every  sort  of  morbid  matter,  obstruction,  and  disease  incident 
to  the  body.  Excess  of  carbon  has  already  been  shown  to  be 
one  prolific  cause  of  disease ;  and  all  diseases  thus  caused  are 
easily  obviated  by  taking  little  carbon  into  the  system  in  the 
form  of  food,  meanwhile  introducing  much  oxygen  in  the 
form  of  breath  to  burn  it  out.  -  Thus,  suppose  you  have  a  bile 
or  abscess,  or  fever  sore,  as  the  corrupt  matter  consists  mainly 
of  carbon,  of  course  by  eating  little,  and  those  kinds  of  food 
which  abound  in  fibrine,  tissue,  etc.,  yet  contain  little  carbon, 
you  reduce  the  supply  of  carbon  ;  meanwhile,  breathe  copi- 
ously, so  as  to  burn  it  up  fast 92,  and  you,  of  course,  soon 
evacuate  this  surplus  carbon,  heal  the  abscess,  and  restore  the 
healthy  action  of  the  system.  Undoubtedly  this  principle 
might  be  applied  effectually  to  the  cure  of  consumption,  as  it  has 
been  to  the  gravel.  And  I  fully  believe  this  principle  of  neu- 
tralization will  soon  be  applied  so  as  immediately  and  effect- 
ually to  cure  all  sorts  of  disease,  and  prolong  life  to  twice  and 
thrice  its  present  period.  I  earnestly  commend  this  point  to 
the  scientific  researches  of  chymists,  and  to  the  practical  ex- 
periment of  all. 

Stomatic  inflammation  also  accompanies  indigestion,  and 
causes  those  pains  incident  to  dyspepsia.  This  can  be  easily 
reduced,  and  along  with  it  those  cravings  of  the  appetite 
already  shown  to  accompany  dyspepsia 76.  You  eagerly  ask 
now  ?  This  brings  up 

170.      THE  DRINK  OF  DYSPEPTICS — ITS  KIND,  TIME,  AND  QUANTITY. 

Cold  water  is  undoubtedly  man's  natural  beverage  103.  On 
this  point  we  need  not  enlarge.  Besides  promoting  health,  its 
medicinal  properties  are  also  great.  It  is  one  of  those  power- 
ful neutralizers  of  the  corrupt  matter  in  the  stomach,  the  virtues 
of  which  have  just  been  shown  I68.  Have  dyspeptics  not  often 

' 


SENSATION.  293 

noticed  copious  eructations  of  gas  soon  after  having  drank 
freely?  The  mineral  substances  of  the  water  combined  with 
and  neutralized  some  of  the  obnoxious  matter  in  the  stomach, 
and  hence  the  gas,  Probably  nothing  equals  water  for  reduc- 
ing inflammation.  Dip  a  burn  into  cold  water  and  keep  it 
there  half  an  hour,  and  its  inflammation  and  consequent 
smarting  will  subside.  Immersing  a  cut,  or  bruise,  or  sprain; 
or  fracture,  or  rheumatic  joint,  or  any  other  form  of  inflamma- 
tion  into  water,  and  both  inflammation  and  pain  will  be  dimin- 
ished.  For  the  virtues  of  water  as  an  antidote  of  inflamma- 
tion in  all  its  forms,  see  the  water  cure.  But  this  fact  admitted, 
its  application  to  the  cure  of  stomatic  irritation  follows.  No 
medicine,  no  diet,  nothing  equals  its  judicious  application,  ex- 
ternal and  internal,  to  the  stomach  of  dyspeptics.  Its  exter- 
nal application  in  the  form  of  wet  cloths  laid  on  the  stomach 
and  covered  with  several  thicknesses  of  flannel  to  keep  in  the 
heat — and  for  this,  night  is  by  far  the  best  time — is  most  benefi- 
cial. Injections  two  or  three  times  per  day  are  even  more  so. 
But  the  DRINKING  of  cold  water  is  the  medicine  for  dyspeptics 
after  all — not  by  stint,  but  by  copious  drafts. 

Yet  the  best  TIME  for  drinking  is  especially  important.  This 
should  not  be  at  meals,  because  it  reduces  the  temperature 
of  the  stomach  below  98°  Farenheit  requisite  for  digestion, 
which  it  arrests  till  that  temperature  is  again  attained.  In  fact, 
dyspeptics  should  drink  nothing  with  their  meals,  even  though 
their  mouths  are  dry  while  eating,  because  this  veiy  dryness 
will  provoke  that  salivary  secretion  so  essential  to  prepare  the 
food  for  digestion w, "whereas  drinking,  by  rinsing  down  the 
food,  obviates  this  dryness  and  leaves  these  glands  to  slumber. 
I  even  recommend  dyspeptics  to  eat  DRY  food,  as  dry  bread, 
crusts,  Graham  wafers,  crackers,  and  the  like,  so  as  to  in- 
crease the  DEMAND  for  saliva  to*  moisten  the  food,  and  thus  call 
the  salivary  glands  into  action.  To  discontinue  these  drinks 
may  be  quite  a  trial  at  first,  but  after  a  few  days  will  be  no 
trouble. 

Nor  should  dyspeptics  drink  till   some  three  or  four  hours 
after  their  meals — or,  rather,  till  within  an  hour  or  two  of  the 
next  meal,  when  they  should  drink  freely  till  within  half  an 
*  25* 

' 


294  CURE    OF    DISEASE. 

hour  of  meal-time,  and  then  discontinue,  so  that  the  stomach 
may  regain  its  temperature. 

Copious  drinking,  before  breakfast,  of  water  fresh  from  the 
well  or  spring,  accompanied  by  as  vigorous  exercise  as  the 
patient  can  bear,  will  be  found  especially  serviceable.  Drink 
freely  again  an  hour  before  dinner,  and  an  hour  before  sup- 
per, if  you  take  any,  which  dyspeptics  should  omit — or  rather 
be  contented  to  drink  instead  of  eating — and  again  on  retiring. 
If  lemonade  agrees  with  you,  drink  ef  that  occasionally  in 
place  of  water,  but  drink  at  these  times  and  not  at  meals,  and 
one  month  will  greatly  improve  the  tone  of  your  stomach. 

Add  to  this  all  the  exercise  you  can  well  endure,  business 
relaxation,  a  light  diet,  thorough  mastication,  and  slow  eating, 
and  you  will,  in  one  year — probably  in  a  far  less  time — be 
well.  Eat  in  the  main  those  kinds  of  food  which  agree  best 
with  you,  yet  abstain  from  animal  food,  and  live  much  on 
coarse  unbolted  flour  bread  and  fruit. 

Especially  must  dyspeptics  EAT  LITTLE.  Without  this, 
there  is  no  salvation  for  them.  Full  feeding  will  effectually 
counteract  all  these  and  all  other  remedial  prescriptions — will 
even  re-induce  dyspepsia  after  it  is  cured,  and  of  course  aggra- 
vate it  and  prevent  its  cure.  Make  up  year  minds  to  STARVE 
IT  OUT,  or  else  to  suffer  all  its  miseries,  and  soon  end  your 
days.  Abstinence  is  the  great  panacea.  All  else  only  aids, 
but  does  not  reach  its  ROOT. 

Another  cure  more  effectual  than  any  other  except  fasting, 
already  frequently  alluded  to,  requires  to  be  distinctly  brought 
forward.  Several  principles  already  adduced  show  that  dys- 
peptics over-eat70,  and  are  surfeited  with  carborn m.  Of 
course  this  surplus  must  be  discharged,  and  such  discharge 
will  generally  cure  them.  This  can  be  effected  by  eating 
less  and  BREATHING  MORE.  Nothing  equals  breath  as  a  cure- 
all.  Fresh  air  in  large  and  perpetual  doses  is  by  far  the  most 
effectual  specific  for  dyspeptics  and  consumptives  that  exists. 
The  reason  has  already  been  given.  In  short,  let  them  follow 
the  prescriptions  of  this  work  as  to  the  selection,  mastica- 
tion, quantity,  and  digestion  of  food,  and  touching  circula- 
tion, respiration,  prespiration,  sleep,  exercise,  etc.,  in  addition 


PALPITATION,  295 

to  the  specific  prescriptions  of 167 168  ®,  and  they  will  soon  be 
cured. 

171.       PALPITATION  OF    THE    HEART    AND  THE  PROMOTION  OF  CIRCULATION. 

Hepatic  difficulties  are  the  twin  sisters  of  dyspepsia,  so  that 
the  prescriptions  just  directed  for  the  latter  will  cure  the  for- 
mer.  The  two  specific  directions  for  curing  it  are,  first,  an 
abstemious^  cooling  diet,  and  abundance  of  fresh  air.  The 
blood  is  too  thick  and  turgid,  and  hence  lodges  about  the 
heart.  The  oxygen  of  breath  thins  it86,  so  that  it  flows  the 
more  freely.  All  thus  afflicted  have  noticed  that  just  as  they 
inspire  air  its  beat  is  quickened  and  strengthened,  but  slack- 
ens as  they  expire — proof  conclusive  that  more  copious  breath- 
ing will  obviate  their  difficulty.  Such  will  also  generally 
find  their  veins  too  blue,,  owing  to  a  surplus  of  carbonic 
acid  °3.  Respiration  alone  can  remove  this  from  the  system, 
and  thus  still  farther  thin  the  blood.  Iron  filings  may  aid  92. 

Such  will  also  always  be  found  to  have  cold  hands  and 
feet,  to  be  chilly,  and  to  have  frequent  head-aches — all  be- 
cause their  heart  is  too  feeble  to  propel  the  blood  through- 
out the  system.  Whatever,  therefore,  promotes  circulation, 
will  relieve  the  heart  by  leaving  less  blood  collected  in  its 
veins,  and  remove  the  headache  by  withdrawing  that  surplus 
blood  which  occasions  the  congestion  and  consequent  pain. 
This,  friction  and  the  bath  will  do  much  to  effect 105 107  in.  To 
such  the  foot-bath  will  be  especially  serviceable  125.  Magnet- 
ism can  also  be  successfully  applied  to  the  relief  of  the  heart 
and  head.  As,  however,  the  section  on  circulation  has  already 
discussed  this  whole  matter,  repetition  here  is  unnecessary. 

172.       CONSUMPTION ITS    CAUSES    AND    CURE. 

As  consumption  is  only  an  obdurate  cold  108,  the  cure  for 
which  has  already  been  prescribed  109  "° 1U,  the  principles  in- 
volved in  its  treatment  are  already  before  the  reader.  Yet 
we  have  introduced  this  point  here  to  add  a  few  important 
suggestions.  Disorder  of  the  stomach  induces  symptoms 
often  supposed  to  indicate  consumption.  Thus  a  foul  stomach 
loads  the  system  with  disease,  which  settles  on  the  weakest 


296  CURE    OF    DISEASE. 

organ,  and  this  may  be  the  lungs.  Hence  theij  oppression  is 
often  only  sympathetic. 

They  also  evacuate  much  noxious  matter  from  the  system. 
Thus  alcohol,  being  inimical  to  life,  is  taken  up  and  ejected 
by  the  lungs,  and  hence  we  smell  it  in  the  breath  of  those 
who  drink.  By  this  same  law  they  eject  other  noxious  mat- 
ters. When,  therefore,  the  stomach  is  foul,  so  that  food 
decays  in  it,  and  thus  engenders  a  vast  amount  of  corrup- 
tion 76,  and  when  the  pores  of  the  skin  are  partially  closed,  so 
as  to  prevent  its  free  escape  through  this  channel,  it  returns 
with  the  blood  to  the  lungs,  and  there  gathers  on  them  in  the 
form  of  mucous  or  phlegm,  irritates,  occasions  cough,  sore- 
ness, and  all  the  signs  of  consumption.  Yet  dyspepsia  is 
the  primary  disease,  though  it  often  ends  in  consumption. 
Such  may  have  consumptive  symptoms  many  years,  yet 
recover,  and  should  follow  the  directions  just  prescribed  for 
dyspeptics  16S  m. 

This  principle  applies  equally  to  diseases  of  the  head, 
nerves,  muscles,  and  other  parts  of  the  body,  as  occasioning 
consumptive  symptoms,  and  ultimately  the  disease  itself — the 
cure  consisting  in  that  of  the  primary  disease. 

But  even  when  consumption  proper  has  fastened  upon  the 
lungs,  and  formed  abscesses,  it  is  by  no  means  incurable — 
no  more  so  than  disease  of  any  of  the  other  organs.  The 
great  cause  of  failure  is  erroneous  modes  of  TREATMENT,  not 
the  obstinacy  of  the  disease.  Tubercles  form  in  other  parts 
of  the  system  as  often  as  in  the  lungs — indeed,  are  the  gen- 
eral product  or  issue  of  all  chronic  diseases.  They  form  in 
the  liver,  muscles,  glands,  stomach,  heart,  and  even  brain,  ana 
can  be  cured  elsewhere.  Then  why  not  in  the  lungs  ? 
They  are  the  exudations  of  corrupt  matter,  generated  in  the 
ungs  or  elsewhere,  and  can  be  cured  by  arresting  the  pro- 
gress of  this  corruption,  and  giving  nature  a  chance  to  repair 
the  breach.  This  is  rarely  attempted.  Stop  the  generation 
of  additional  corruption  and  the  system  will  soon  relieve 
itself  of  what  exists.  Frequent  and  copious  SWEATING,  by  re- 
opening  the  pores  and  carrying  off  this  corrupt  matter,  will  be 
found  the  most  efficacious  point  of  attack  in.  Consumptive 


CONSUMPTION.  297 

night  sweats  attempt   this,  yet  the   corruption   accumulates 
faster  than  it  is  unloaded,  and  hence  the  disease  progresses. 

One  of  the  principal  generators  of  this  corrupt  matter  13 
surplus  carbon m.  As  the  patient's  lungs  are  small,  and 
their  lining  membrane  partially  clotted  by  phlegm,  so  as  to 
obstruct  the  ingress  of  oxygen  and  exit  of  carbonic  acid,  of 
course  little  carbon  is  burnt  in  the  system,  and  its  surplus  is 
the  consequence.  Such  should  eat  very  little — almost  starve 
— because  they  can  burn  up  but  little  carbon.  Then  why 
force  it  upon  the  system  only  to  aggravate  the  malady  ?  But 
as  all  the  principles  here  involved  have  been  explained, 
additional  enlargement  is  unnecessary. 

173.       PREVENTIVES    OF    CONSUMPTION. 

But  its  PREVENTION  is  far  more  important  than  its  cure,  be . 
cause  more  easy  and  effectual.  It  can  always  be  kept  at 
bf  y,  however  predisposed  the  patient.  First,  then,  some  of 
its  signs,  that  those  pre-disposed  may  be  on  their  guard. 
They  will  generally  be  tall,  slim,  long-fingered  and  limbed, 
spindling,  small  and  narrow-chested,  inclined  to  sit  and  walk 
bent  forward,  and  their  shoulders  thrown  forwards  and  in- 
wards, because  their  small  lungs  and  stomachs  cause  a  pectoral 
caving  in,  sunken  between  where  the  arms  join  the  body,  and 
to  have  a  long  neck,  sunken  cheeks,  long  faces,  sharp  fea- 
tures, a  pallid  countenance,  light  complexion,  a  thin,  soft,  and 
delicate  skin,  light  and  fine  hair,  rather  a  hollow,  exhausted, 
ghastly  aspect,  long  and  rounding  finger  nails,  cold  hands 
and  feet,  and  general  chilliness,  wakefulness  at  night,  great 
excitability,  very  active  minds,  clear  thoughts,  excellent 
natural  abilities,  intense  feelings,  rapidity  of  motion,  and  a 
hurried  manner,  liability  to  be  fatigued,  in  short,  a  decided 
predominance  of  the  mental  temperament  over  the  vital — of 
head  over  body. 

The  accompanying  engraving  of  Granville  Mellen,  the  poet, 
who  died  of  this  disease,  gives  a  good  general  idea  of  the  form 
of  the  face  and  person  of  consumptives. 

Yet  I  have  seen  those  of  full,  fleshy  habits  predisposed  to 
quick  consumption,  though  equally  so  to  all  other  local  inflam- 


CURE    OF    DISEASE. 


THE    CONSUMPTIVE    PHYSIOLOGY. 


No.  25.    .GRAKYILLE  MELLEN. 

mations  and  diseases,  because  their  systems  were  exceedingly 
excitable. 

The  small  lungs  and  hearts  of  those  predisposed  to  this  dis- 
ease render  their  circulation  imperfect.  To  promote  this, 
should  then  be  the  first  end  sought  by  them.  Whatever,  there- 
fore, tends  to  retard  the  flow  of  blood,  especially  at  the  surface, 
such  as  sedentary  pursuits,  confinement  within  doors,  and  par- 
ticularly in  heated  rooms,  habitual  sewing,  a  cramped  and 
forward  posture,  severe  mental  application,  impure  skin,  sud- 
den atmospheric  changes,  colds,  and  the  like,  should  be  sedu- 
lously avoided,  whereas  a  light  diet,  fresh  air,  out-of-door  pur- 
suits, abundant  sleep,  vigorous  exercise,  warm  climate,  and 
free  circulation  tend  to  prevent  it.  Keep  the  SKIN  clean  and 
active,  directions  for  which  have  already  been  given,  and  you 
are  safe  ll°  m. 

TIGHT  LACING  is  most  pernicious  to  those  thus  predisposed, 
because  it  cramps  the  lungs,  prevents  their  inflation,  inflames 
them,  shuts  out  oxygen,  the  deficiency  of  which  is  the  great 


PREVENTIVES    OF    CONSUMPTION.  299 

tause  of  this  disease,  curtails  the  action  of  the  whole  vital  ap- 
paratus, and  consequent  supply  of  vitality,  occasions  adhesions, 
and  in  many  other  ways  induces  this  disease.  No  language 
can  tell  the  number  of  premature  deaths  of  both  mothers  and 
iheir  offspring  occasioned  by  this  accursed  practice.-  To  girt 
up  the  vital  organs  is  to  commit  virtual  suicide. 

Hot  drinks,  especially  tea  and  coffee,  are  also  injurious,  be- 
cause they  increase  the  liability  to  take  colds,  and  fever  the 
nervous  system,  already  far  too  excitable.  Drink  warm 
drinks  only  when  you  wish  to  induce  perspiration. 

Exercise  in  the  open  air  is  also  especially  beneficial.  Yet 
be  very  careful  not  to  OVERDO — the  great  fault  of  consump- 
tives, because  their  nerves  are  too  active  for  their  strength. 
Alternate  REST  and  EXERCISE  with  abundance  of  FRESH  AIR 
are  your  best  remedial  agents.  Compared  with  them  medi- 
cines are  powerless.  Doctor  little,  but  INVIGORATE  YOUR 

GENERAL  HEALTH. 

Added  to  general  friction,  let  the  chest  be  rubbed  often, 
with  the  hand  of  a  healthy  and  robust  friend.  Especially  let 
mothers  and  nurses  rub  narrow-chested  children  much. 

The  full  and  frequent  INFLATION  OF  THE  LUNGS  is  especially 
advantageous.  In  this  alone  consist  the  virtues  of  Rammage's 
tube.  Yet  such  inflation  can  be  effected  better  without  than 
with  any  kind  of  -tube.  Sit  or  stand  straight,  throw  the  arms 
back,  and  chest  forward,  and  then  draw  in  slowly  as  full  a 
breath  as  possible,  and  hold  it  for  some  time,  perhaps  mean- 
while gently  striking  the  chest,  so  as  to  force  the  air  down, 
into  the  extremities  of  all  the  air-cells  of  the  lungs,  as  well  as 
enlarge  the  lungs,  and  keep  up  this  practice  habitually,  and 
consumption  will  pass  you  by.  Nor  will  many  other  prac- 
tices contribute  more  to  general  health.  .An  erect  posture  is 
especially  important,  and  warping  forward  and  inward — which 
consumptives  are  apt  to  do — very  detrimental,  because  it 
cramps  and  impairs  the  vital  apparatus,  especially  the  lungs. 
Reading  aloud,  speaking,  singing,  vocal  training,  and  gym- 
nastics— all  right  EXERCISE  of  the  lungs — will  strengthen  them, 
and  thus  keep  this  disease  at  bay ;  yet  care  should  be  taken 
not  to  exercise  them  to  EXHAUSTION.  Cuvier  cured  a  consump. 


300  CUKE    OF    DISEASE. 

tive  predisposition  by  lecturing,  and  so  has  the  author.  When 
he  first  began  to  lecture  and  examine,  his  lungs  were  feeble 
and  irritable,  having  twice  laid  him  up  for  months,  bu<  they 
began  to  improve  at  once,  and  can  now  endure  almost  inces- 
sant talking  during  the  day,  and  two  or  three  hours  of  public 
speaking  every  evening  in  the  year — they  being  the  last  to 
tire. 

Sea  voyages  are  much  recommended,  and  also  southern 
climates.  Both,  by  promoting  SURFACE  circulation  and  perspi 
ration,  are  eminently  beneficial.  Yet  if  the  same  ends  can 
be  obtained  at  home  the  effect  will  be  the  same,  and  all  the 
evils  incident  to  voyages,  absence  from  home,  exposures,  etc., 
be  avoided.  Southern  climates  are  even  less  favorable  to 
consumptives  than  a  northern,  because  of  the  rarefied  state  of 
the  atmosphere,  and  consequent  deficiency  of  oxygen — one  of 
the  main  elements  required  by  consumptives.  Indeed,  I  see 
not  why  inhaling  oxygen  gas,  perhaps  somewhat  diluted, 
would  not  prove  eminently  serviceable.  And  whatever  will 
cure  this  disease  will  prevent  it,  and  the  reverse.  We  con-- 
elude  by  giving  directions  for  the  regimen  of 

174,       THE    CHILDREN    OF    CONSUMPTIVE    PARENTS. 

Quinsy,  sore  throat,  croup,  inflammation  on  the  lungs,  and 
liability  to  colds,  all  spring  from  a  consumptive  predisposition, 
and  can  be  cured  by  whatever  prevents  it.  Besides  the  ap- 
plying to  such  children  preventives  already  prescribed  for 
consumptive  adults,  let  them  not  be  sent  to  school  early,  but 
allowed  to  run  wild,  at  least  unconfined  within  doors  till  into 
their  teens.  Sitting  in  school  is  especialty  pernicious,  partly 
because  of  the  vitiated  air  of  school- rooms",  and  because 
their  small  lungs  make  them  naturally  bend  forward,  and  also 
warp  inwardly  so  as  to  retard  all  the  vital  functions.  Folding 
the  arms  upon  the  chest  is  especially  detrimental,  because  it 
impedes  respiration.  Fold  them  behind,  if  at  all,  so  as  to 
throw  out  the  lungs.  As  the  heads 'of  all  such  children  are 
too  much  for  their  bodies  1S2 163,  neglect  their  mental  culture, 
but  make  every  effort  to  develop  and  fortify  their  physiology. 
They  should  do  little  else  than  EXERCISE,  EAT,  SLEEP,  and 


PREVENTION  OF  CONSUMPTION.  301 

GROW  TILL  TWENTY,  and  even  then  not  hurry  to  marry,  or  en- 
gage in  business  till  fully  matured,  though  such  are  liable  to 
do  both  while  too  young.  They  require  all  their  energies  for 
growth,  and  to  divert  them  from  the  physiology  to  the  men- 
tality is  to  increase  that  very  cerebral  ascendancy  in  which 
their  consumptive  tendency  consists.  They  border  on  PRE- 
COCITY m,  and  require  to  be  kept  FROM  study  instead  of  sent  tc 
school.  If  boys,  furnish  them  with  tools  instead  of  books,  and 
encourage,  them  in  all  kinds  of  athletic  exercises,  such  as 
making  and  flying  kites,  sliding  down  hill,  skating,  swimming 
— yet  never  allow  them  to  remain  long  in  the  water  at  a  time 
— riding,  working,  wrestling,  climbing,  racing,  shooting  with 
bow  and  arrow — a  most  excellent  means  of  developing  the 
chest — and  above  all  talking  loud  and  halloing  much,  so  as 
to  expand  their  lungs.  The  more  noisy  the  better  for  their 
health,  and  the  more  averse  to  study  the  less  liable  to  con- 
sumption. But  let  them  live  mainly  on  bread,  milk,  and 
fruit,  and  retire  and  rise  early.  Meat  will  injure  them,  be- 
cause it  still  farther  stimulates  them 45 — the  reverse  of  what 
they  require — whereas  milk  soothes  and  quiets  them.  Let  no 
fears  be  entertained  that  they  will  be  dull  scholars  or  ignorant 
men.  Their  brains  are  too  active  already,  so  that  without 
schooling  they  will  eclipse  others  with.  Nor  put  them  early 
into  law  offices  or  stores,  but  LET  THEM  GROW  FIRST.  Espe- 
cially, if  they  must  go  to  college,  do  not  let  them  begin  to  fit 
till  at  least  twenty.  Rather  let  them  work  on  the  farm  till 
fully  matured.  Nor  ever  put  girls  thus  predisposed  to  any 
sedentary,  confining,  or  sewing  occupation,  or  to  work  in  fac- 
tories. Rather  let  them  work  in  kitchens — anything  that  will 
improve  health  and  prolong  life.  Perhaps  few  things  invite 
consumption  more  than  sitting  and  sewing  steadily  in  warm 
rooms. 

Especially  important  is  it  that  such  bathe.  A  consumptive 
patient  was  cured  by  being  taken. winter  mornings  to  Amboy 
bay,  and  immersed  in  a  hole  cut  through  the  ice.  The  colder 
the  weather  the  more  important  the  cold-bath  to  such  children, 
followed  with  brisk  friction.  Follow  these  directions  and  they 
will  escape  consumption  and  live  to  a  good  old  age. 
26 


302  CURE    OF    DISEASE. 

175.       THE    CURE    OF    DISORDERED    NERVJC", 

The  mental  signs  of  nervous  disease  or  state  of  fejing,  has 
already  been  pointed  out.  It  remains  to  give  a  few  physical 
indices,  so  that  those  thus  afflicted  may  know  what  ails  them. 
Tenderness,  amounting  perhaps  to  soreness,  on  the  top  of  the 
head  just  behind  Veneration  betokens  this  disease.  The  rea- 
son is  this.  As  the  heart,  lungs,  stomach,  muscles,  and  all 
the  internal  organs  have  each  their  respective  cerebral  organs 
in  the  cerebellum,  so  the  nervous  system  has  its  center  at  that 
seat  of  the  soul  already  pointed  out  15\  so  that  the  painful  state 
of  the  nerves  causes  pain  at  this  their  center,  and  of  course  a 
tenderness  at  the  top  of  the  head  over  this  seat.  This  shows 
why  nervous  derangement  disorders  all  the  feelings  and  ren- 
ders all  the  mental  operations  painful  I56.  Hence  nervous 
people  can  never  enjoy  life  till  they  restore  their  nerves. 

Besides  this  tenderness,  nervous  patients  are  easily  agitated, 
flustered,  and  thrown  into  a  confused  state  of  mind  by  trifles, 
are  easily  elated  and  depressed,  quick  in  all  their  movements, 
full  of  excitement,  liable  to  wakefulness,  and  full  of  bad  feel- 
ings throughout  mind  and  body. 

But  to  their  cure.  This  disease  is  more  frequently  sympa- 
thetic than  primary.  Dyspepsia  is  always  accompanied  by 
nervousness.  So  are  heart  affections,  scrofula,  gout,  fevers, 
colds,  and  nearly  or  quite  all  forms  of  disease.  In  fact,  as 
the  nerves  are  ramified  throughout  every  organ  and  portion  of 
the  body,  and  reciprocally  inter-related  with  every  part,  of 
course  they  sympathize  perfectly  with  the  healthy  and  dis- 
eased, active  and  sluggish  state  of  the  body  as  a  whole,  and  of 
all  its  parts.  Hence,  whether  nervous  disorders  are  primary 
or  sympathetic,  the  effectual  means  of  curing  them  is  to  restore 
the  tone  and  vigor  of  the  SYSTEM  AS  A  WHOLE,  by  obeying 
those  laws  of  dietetics,  circulation,  respiration,  sleep,  bathing, 
friction,  exercise,  and  the  like,  already  pointed  out.  True, 
health  of  nerves  more  effectually  promotes  general  health  than 
perhaps  all  other  instrumentalities.  Indeed,  the  perfeGfrreci- 
procity  existing  between  them  and  the  rest,  of  the  system  ren- 
ders it  difficult  to  say  whether  remedial  agents  should  be  ap- 


DISORDERED   NERVES.  303 

plied  primarily  to  them  when  disordered  or  to  the  system  as  a 
whole.  But  this  much  is  certain,  that  the  promotion  of  general 
health  is  the  great  means  of  restoring  disordered  nerves.  Let 
nervous  patients  then  strictly  fulfil  all  the  conditions  of  health, 
if  they  would  effect  a  cure.  To  a  few  items,  however,  special 
attention  should  be  directed. 

1.  The  importance  of  bathing,  friction,  and  the  healthy  ac- 
tion of  the  skin  is  to  such  doubly  enhanced,  directions  for 
which  need  not  be  repeated.    The  hand-bath,  properly  applied, 
will   be   found  an  almost  sovereign  panacea  for  these  com- 
plaints. 

2.  Those  nervous  subjects  who  are  also  dyspeptic  need  not 
expect  to  restore  their  nerves  till  they  restore  their  stomachs. 
The    corruption    engendered    by  impaired  digestion76,   is   so 
great  as  to  keep  even  healthy  nerves  in   a  perpetual   fever. 
This   irritating  cause  must  be    removed    before    health    can 
be  restored ;  directions  for  which   will  be  found   under  dys- 
pepsia, J68 169 17°. 

3.  Nervous  people  are  particularly  troubled  with  restless- 
ness.    Though  perpetually  worn  out  for  want  of  rest,  they  can 
compose  themselves  to  sleep  only  with  difficulty,  sleep  lightly, 
are  restless,  disturbed  by  dreams,  easily  wakened,  and  find 
great  difficulty  in  again  getting  to  sleep.     Hence  such  should 
sleep  ALL  THEY  CAN.     No  cure  for  nervousness  at  all  equals 
sleep ;  nor  are  eight  and  even  nine  hours  per  diem  too  much 
for  such.     They  sleep  slowly  when  asleep,  yet  exhaust  them 
selves  rapidly   while  awake,  and   hence    should    devote   the 
more  time  to  this  all-important  function.     Let  such  observe 
with  especial  assiduity  the  directions  for  promoting  sleep  al- 
ready prescribed  l26  ™'m  129 13°.     To  such,  light  suppers  and  as 
much  exercise  as  can  be  well  borne  will  be  found  especially 
important.     Yet  such  hate  to  move  till  obliged  to,  and  then 
are  perpetually  liable  to  overdo — not  to  do  too  much  abso- 
lutely, but  to  do  too  FAST,  so  as  to  induce  that  trembling  al- 
ready pointed  out  as  a  sign  of  overdoing.     If  they  would  only 
exercise  moderately,  they  might  do  a  great  deal  more,  but 
their  nervousness  renders  them  always  in  a  great  hurry,  and 
hence  they  take  hold  of  exercise   too  rankly.     Such  should 


304  CURE    OF    DISEASE. 

work  moderately  till  just  comfortably  tired,  then  rest  awhile 
perhaps  lay  down,  and  if  possible,  take  a  nap,  then  return  to 
work,  and  thus  often  alternate  between  action  and  rest.  Day 
naps  to  the  nervous  will  be  found  especially  serviceable. 

4.  To  the  influence  of  grief,  and  all  kinds  of  sadness,  mel- 
ancholy, and  despondency,  special  attention  is  invited.     See 
how  many  tolerably  healthy   mothers   have   become  nervous 
immediately  on  the  death  of  a  dearly  beloved  friend  or  child, 
have  declined  rapidly,  and  soon  after  followed  their  lost  one 
to  a  premature  grave*     Those  at  all  predisposed  to  nervous  dis- 
order, who  may  lose  friends,  must-banish  grief,  not  indulge  it. 
Must  their  death  hasten  yours  ?     If  your  grief  could  benefit 
their  souls,  indulge  it;  but  since  it  injures  you  in  the  most 
effectual  manner  possible,  without  doing  any  good,  practical 
wisdom  dictates  its  banishment.     Instead,  cultivate  cbeerful- 
ness  and  even  mirth.     Nothing  will  equally  soothe  irritated 
nerves,  or  tend  to  restore  their  tone  and  happy  function. 

5.  Severe  mental    application   is  especially   deleterious  to 
nervous  invalids.     Their  disorder  consists  mainly  in  predomi- 
nant cerebral  and  nervous  action  162,  and  their  cure  in  restor-. 
ing  the  requisite  balance  by  reducing  it.     Those,  then,  whose 
occupation  requires  much  mental  application,   must  give  up 
their  business  or  their  happiness,   if  not  lives.     The  former 
may  be  like  plucking  a  right  eye,  but  the  latter  is  worse. 
Why  prosecute  business  at  the  sacrifice  of  life  ?     Do  you  not 
pursue    your   avocation   simply  as  a  means  of  enjoyment  ? 
Then  why  not  give  it  up  when  it  conflicts  with  this  only  end 
of  life?1     Besides,  by  suspending  it  till   restored,  how  much 
more  you  will  be  enabled  to  do  in   the  long  run.     So  that, 
merely  for  the  sake  of  accomplishing  the  very  business  you 
would  do,  postpone  it  temporarily. 

What  folly  to  sacrifice  a  lifetime  of  business  to  a  few 
months,  or  even  years !  Why  kill  the  goose  that  lays  the 
golden  egg?  Cure  your  nerves  first,  and  do  your  business 
afterwards 5. 

A  light,  simple  diet  is  quite  as  indispensable  to  the  nerv- 
ous as  the  dyspeptic.  Few  things  oppress  the  nerves  more  than 
over-eating,  or  relieve  them  more  than  abstemiousness. 


DISORDERED    NERVES.  305 

6.  But  a  cooling  diet  is  even  more  important.     All  condi- 
ments, all  stimulants,  act  mainly  upon  the  nerves,  and  re-excite, 
and  still  farther  disease  them.  Hence  all  alcoholic  drinks,  wines, 
beers,  cider,  ale,  all  kinds  of  fermented  liquors  are  fire  to  them, 
and  should  be  wholly  avoided.     Tobacco  is  another  powerful 
nervous  irritant — is  fatal  to  nervous  quiet.     In  common  with 
opium,  it  exhilarates  temporarily  only  ultimately  to  fever  and 
disorder.     No  higher  proof  of  this  is  required  than  the  feel- 
ings consequent  on  its  abstinence.     And  the  more  wretched 
you  feel  when  deprived  of  your  pipe,  quid,  or  segar,  the  more 
it  has  already  impaired  your  nerves,  and  will  increase  its 
ravages.     Of  which,  however,  more  fully  in  a  proposed  work 
on  this  subject. 

7.  Tea  and  coffee  have  a  similar  effect.     The  stronger  teas 
are  rank  poison  to  the  nerves,  and  black  teas  are  poisonous, 
though   less   so.     Coffee   is   still   worse.     Its  strong  narcotic 
properties  powerfully  enhance  nervous  irritability,"  and  will 
create,  much  more  aggravate  nervous  disorder.     Susceptible 
as  my  nerves  are,  nothing  would  tempt  me  to  fever  them  by 
tea,  coffee,  tobacco,  or  alcohol,  and  all  who  do  are  consum- 
mately foolish,  and  even  wicked,  and   sinning  against  their 
own   peace.     Yet  we  will  not  follow  up  this  subject  here,  but 
refer  the  reader  to  a  forthcoming  work  by  the  author  on  their 
use.     Meanwhile,  all  whose  nerves  are  in  the  least  affected, 
are  abjured  to  refrain  from  them  wholly  and  at  once.     This 
requisition  is  ABSOLUTE,  IMPERIOUS,  INEXORABLE. 

8.  Powdered  lady-slipper  root,  called  valerian,  or  "nerve 
powder,"  sold  by  Thompsonian  practitioners,  is  an  excellent 
nervous  sedative,  and  should  be  taken  on  retiring — about  a 
tea-spoonful  steeped    in  water  and  sweetened.     It  promotes 
sleep,  relieves  the  head,  and  exerts  a  healing,  soothing  influ- 
ence  on  the  nervous  system.     I  have  often  prescribed  and 
taken  it,  always  with  benefit.     The  root  of  itself  is  probably 
quite  as  good  as  after  mixed  with  cayenne  as  in  the  powder 
referred  to,  and  doubtless  a  decoction  of  it  put  in  the  water 
used  in  bathing,  and  in   enemas,  would  be  excellent.     An 
ointment  might  doubtless  be  made  of  it,  combined  perhaps 
with  some  oleaginous  compounds,  also  quieting  to  the  nerves, 

20* 


: 
306  CURE    OF    INSANITY. 

of  great  practical  value ;    that  is,  its  EXTERNAL  applicatic 
would  probably  prove  still  more  serviceable  than  its  internal. 
There  are  doubtless  other  valuable  medicines  and  prescrip. 
tions,  but  these,   well   followed,   in    connection  with  a  rigid 
adherence  to  the  conditions  of  health,  will   restore  the  most 
iggravated  cases  of  this  disease,   and  make  new  men   and 
•vomen  of  many  miserable  thousands  in  our  land  now  filled 
with  nervous  complaints. 

176.       PREVENTIVES    OF   INSANITY.- 

Of  all  the  diseases  incident  to  human  nature,  those  which 
affect  the  MINE  are  the  most  grievous,  crushing,  and  absolutely 
insupportable.  To  have  limb  after  limb  cut  from  the  writhing 
body,  most  excruciating  though  it  be,  bears  no  comparison  to 
that  horror  of  horrors  experienced  "  when  mind's  diseased." 
How  often  have  those  thus  afflicted  been  known  to  hold  their 
hands  in  the  fire,  cut  and  bite  their  flesh,  or  to  submit  to 
amputation,  and  then  remark  that  these  things  were  diversions 
compared  with  the  indescribable  mental  anguish  they  endure ! 
Well  may  the  heart  of  every  philanthropist  beat  with  its  fullest 
and  strongest  pulsations  of  sympathy,  in  view  of  the  anguish 
experienced  by  the  raging,  bewildered  maniac  ;  and  well  may 
government  attempt  the  amelioration  of  those  thus  afflicted,  by 
erecting  asylums  for  their  comfort  and  cure.  What  practice 
is  as  barbarous,  as  absolutely  horrible,  as  that  of  confining  the 
maniac,  perhaps  in  a  dungeon,  in  chains,  or  the  strait  jacket, 
treating  him  as  if  he  were  criminal,  and  perhaps  scourging 
him  at  that !  He  is  sick,  not  criminal.  To  punish  one  who 
is  dying  of  fever,  or  consumption,  is  truly  horrible  ;  but  to 
chastise  a  maniac  is  as  much  more  so  as  his  disease  is  more 
painful'  than  all  others.  Ordinary  sickness  can  be  endured  ; 
but  let  reason  be  dethroned,  let  self-possession  be  swayed  from 
its  moorings,  let  imaginary  demons  torment,  and  all  the  pas- 
sions be  thrown  into  tumultuous  uproar,  the  whole  man  no 
longer  himself,  and  of  all  objects  of  commiseration,  this  is  the 
most  deserving. 

But  to  PREVENT  disease  is  far  better  than  to  cure  it :  the 
following  prescriptions,  faithfully  adhered  to,  while  they  will 


INSANI7Y.  307 

;reatly  mitigate  this  disease,  after  it  is  once  seated,  will,  in 
most  cases,  where  it  is  hereditary,  if  not  in  all,  prevent  its 
developing  itself  in  actual  insanity. 

Both  to  prevent  and  also  to  cure  this  disease,  it  is  first 
necessary  that  we  understand  its  CAUSE,  so  as  to  counteract  or 
obviate  it.  The  cause  of  insanity,  or  rather  inanity  itself, 
consists  in  the  excessive  EXCITABILITY  and  OVER-ACTION  of  the 
BRAIN  AND  NERVOUS  SYSTEM  I52.  Its  prevention,  therefore,  can 
be  effected  only  by  REDUCING  this  over-action.  And  the  re- 
mark is  too  obvious  to  require  more  than  its  mere  presentation, 
that  precisely  the  same  remedial  agents  should  be  employed  to 
reduce  this  morbid  inflammation  of  the  brain  which  are  now 
employed  to  reduce  other  cases  of  inflammation,  and  the  same 
means  by  which  tendencies  to  other  forms  of  inflammation 
may  be  prevented,  will  prevent  the  inflammation  of  the  brain, 
and.  its  consequent  derangement  of  mind.  Let  it  never  be 
forgotten  that  insanity  is  a  purely  physical  disease — as  much 
so  as  consumption  or  cancerous  affections,  or  any  other  bodily 
indisposition  ;  and  both  preventives  and  cures,  to  be  effectual, 
must  be  calculated  to  prevent  or  reduce  this  inflammation. 

In  order  to  come  the  more  directly  at  both  the  cause  and 
the  prevention,  as  well  as  the  cure  of  this  disease,  special  at- 
tention is  invited  to  one  condition  which  always  accompanies 
derangement,  and  which  is  a  product  of  that  very  cerebral 
condition  which  causes  madness,  and  that  is,  superior  natural 
abilities,  accompanied  with  feelings  the  most  intense  and  sus- 
ceptible. And  these  are  caused  by  that  same  exalted  action 
of  the  brain  by  which  derangement  is  caused.  Consequently, 
families  and  individuals  predisposed  to  derangement,  are 
always  eminently  talented,  and  possessed  of  the  best  of  feel- 
ings. It  is  the  very  flower  of  community  who  are  thus 
affected.  In  fact,  this  affliction  is  only  the  very  excess  of 
talent  and  sensibility.  Do  superior  talents  depend  upon  the 
powerful  action  of  the  brain  ?  So  does  insanity,  only  the 
cerebral  action  is  still  greater.  As  but  a  narrow  line  sepa- 
rates the  sublime  and  the  ridiculous,  so  bu*  a  step  divides  the 
highest  order  of  talents  from  madness.  Nor  can  a  simpleton 
be  crazy.  It  requires  a  prodigiously  smart  man  to  become 


SOS  CURE    OF    INSAN/TY. 

deranged  ;  so  that  whoever  is  subject  to  insanity  is  '  nobody's 
fool." 

Hence,  then,  to  prevent  hereditary  tendencies  to  insanity 
from  developing  themselves;  it  is  necessary  only  to  prevent 
this  constitutional  excitability  of  the  brain  from  progressing 
beyond  the  point  of  healthy  action.  And  to  do  this,  it  is  only 
requisite  to  divert  the  action  from  the  brain  to  some  other  part, 
to  remove  exciting  causes  of  cerebral  action,  and  to  keep  the 
brain  as  quiescent  as  possible. 

To  illustrate.  Your  child  is  hereditarily. predisposed  to  in- 
sanity. You  will  see  this  predisposition  in  his  ecstasy  of  feel- 
ing when  pleased,  and  in  the  overwhelming  depth  of  his  an. 
guish  when  crossed,  in  the  power  and  intensity  of  his  desires, 
in  his  haste  and  eagerness  about  everything,  and  in  his  being 
precociously  smart  and  acute.  And  this  is  the  error.  Pa, 
rents  generally  try  to  increase  this  action,  by  plying  them  with 
•  study,  keeping  them  confined  at  school,  and  seeing  how  very 
smart  they  can  make  them.  But  the  preventive  of  this  ten- 
dency consists  in  pursuing  directly  the  opposite  course.  This 
highly  wrought  cerebral  action  requires  to  be  diminished,  not 
enhanced.  Study  is  directly  calculated  to  increase  it ;  so  is 
confinement ;  but  physical  exercise  is  calculated  to  divert  it 
from  the  brain  to  the  muscles.  Hence,  no  child  or  youth, 
either  of  whose  parents  or  relatives  are  subject  to  derange- 
ment, should  be  sent  to  school.  Nor  should  they,  for  the  same 
reason,  be  vexed  or  plagued,  or  excited  any  way,  but  they 
should  be  allowed  to  run  and  play  while  children,  to  recreate 
and  amuse  themselves,  and  be  happy  during  the  period  of 
youth,  and  should  not  enter  upon  the  cares  and  business  of 
life  till  fully  matured,  and  then  should  check  that  boiling  en- 
ergy which  courses  through  their  veins. 

Of  all  occupations,  farming  is  the  most  suitable  for  them, 
as  the  labor  it  requires  diverts  the  energies  from  the  brain,  and 
works  off  that  excitement,  the  excess  of  which  constitutes  this 
malady.  With  nothing  to  do,  this  energy  accumulates,  and 
gathers  upon  the  most  susceptible  part,  the  brain,  and  ends  in 
derangement ;  but  open  the  valves  of  labor  for  its  escape,  and 
health  and  sanity  are  preserved. 


INSANITY.  309 

Above  all,  let  them  sleep  much.  Put  them  in  bed  early, 
aud  keep  them  from  being  excited  evenings.  Young  people 
thus  predisposed,  should  never  attend  balls  or  parties,  or  any 
excising  scenes,  in  the  evening,  nor  read  novels;  but  they 
J'shohld  keep  cool  and  quiet.  Most  certainly  they  should  never 
play  cards,  or  any  other  exciting  games  of  chance,  nor  take 
alcoholic  stimulants  of  any  kind  or  degree,  not  even  wine,  or 
cider,  or  beer,  and  scrupulously  avoid  even  tea  and  coffee,  be- 
cause all  these  tend  to  augment  and  develop  that  excessive 
cerebral  action  from '  which,  mainly,  they  are  in  danger 
They  should  take  LAXATIVES,  not  tonics — what  will  diminish 
their  excitability,  not  increase  it.  Alcoholic  drinks  often  in- 
duce derangement,  even  where  there  is  no  hereditary  predispo- 
sition to  it:  much  more,  then,  will  they  develop  a  LATENT 
susceptibility  already  existing. 

As  those  thus  predisposed  cannot  be  too  temperate,  so  they 
are  in  no  danger  of  being  too  abstemious.  Indeed,  stimulating 
meats  and  drinks  are  doubtless  most  efficient  agents  in  deve- 
loping latent  insanity.  The  simplest  diet  is  the  best.  M.'lk, 
by  being  productive  of  dullness,  is  decidedly  beneficial. 
Bread-stuffs  will  be  found  far  preferable  to  meats.  Indeed, 
meat  should  be  wholly  avoided,  because  it  is  a  powerful  stim- 
ulant. It  heats  and  fevers  the  blood,  oppresses  the  brain, 
and  increases  the  tendency  mainly  to  be  avoided.  Bread, 
milk,  Indian  and  rye  puddings,  vegetables,  rice,  fruit,  and  the 
like,  should  constitute  the  diet  of  those  thus  predisposed.  Of 
course  from  spices,  mustards,  peppers,  pickles,  vinegar,  and 
condiments,  they  should  wholly  abstain.  Excepting  alcoholic 
drinks,  nothing  is  equally  pernicious.  Only  those  things 
should  be  taken  which  open  the  system,  and  keep  it  cool. 
Fruit  may  be  eaten  in  almost  any  quantity  with  advantage, 
and  so  may  jellies.  But,  unfortunately,  sweet  things  are  re- 
lished by  such  less  than  things  that  are  sour  and  hot,  such  as 
pickles,  peppers,  etc.  Eat  them,  but  they  will  hurt  you. 

Analogous  to  a  cooling  diet  in  its  sedative  influence,  is  cold 
water,  both  washing  and  bathing,  especially  the  shower-bath. 
Cold  water  is  certainly  cooling,  and  as  already  explained,  is 
pre-eminently  calculated  to  carry  off  the  superabundant  heat 


310  CURE    OF   DISEASE. 

I 

of  the  system,  and  obviate  that  feverish  tendency  which  con. 
stitutes  the  predisposition  to  be  avoided  m.  Nothing  will  be 
found  more  beneficial  to  the  insane  than  cold  water  applied 
externally,  especially  to  the  head,  and  taken  internally  in  co- 
pious and  frequent  draughts.  This  prescription  must  com- 
mend itself  too  forcibly  to  the  common  sense  of  every  reader 
to  require  comment  or  defence. 

But  above  all  things,  let  all  thus  predisposed,  avoid  those 
subjects  on  which  their  relatives  or  ancestors  were  deranged. 
Thus,  one  of  the  topics  of  derangement  appertaining  to  the 
family  of  a  young  man  who  hung  himself  in  the  summer  of 
1842,  on  account  of  his  having  been  disappointed  in  a  love 
matter,  was  the  social  affections.  He  should  have  known  this, 
and  therefore  have  nipped  his  affections  in  the"  bud,  unless  he 
was  sure  of  their  being  reciprocated,  and  consummated  by  mar- 
riage. In  short,  he  should  never  have  allowed  his  affections 
to  become  engaged,  till  he  was  sure  of  marriage — a  direction 
suitable  for  most  young  people,  but  doubly  so  for  those  thus 
predisposed,  because  love  is  a  very  exciting  thing  any  how, 
whereas  they  require  peace  and  quiet.  Still,  unless  such  are 
able  to  govern  their  love,  they  should  locate  their  affections, 
though  they  need  not  therefore  be  in  haste  to  marry.  A  partner 
having  a  cool,  soothing  temperament,  should  alone  be  chosen. 

But  the  most  efficacious  prevention,  after  all,  is  to  place  in- 
tellect on  the  throne,  and  to  bear  in  mind  that  this  heredi- 
tary tendency  exists,  and  when  your  feelings  become  pow- 
erfully awake  to  any  particular  subject,  remember  that  they 
are  constitutionally  too  active,  and  therefore  magnify  every- 
thing, and  remembering  this,  will  enable  you  to  look  on  with 
intellectual  coolness  upon  the  bustling  tumult  of  raging  pas- 
sions'as  upon  school-boys  at  play.  Thus,  if  the  predisposi- 
tion be  to  melancholy,  remember  that  these  gloomy  feelings 
have  no  foundation  in  reality,  but  are  the  product  of  your  own 
organization  ;  that  but  for  this  hereditary  predisposition,  the 
same  circumstances  would  produce  opposite  feelings ;  that,  in 
short,  all  your  trouble  is  self-made,  and  without  foundation, 
and  this  will  enable  you  to  dismiss  them.  And  so  of  any  pre- 
disposition that  may  beset  you.  True^  this  will  require  much 


THE    WATER    CURE.  311 

self-government — a  quality  of  the  utmost  importance  to  those 
thus  predisposed,  and  yet,  from  the  very  nature  of  their  dis- 
ease, so  very  rare — still  it  will  amply  repay  all  the  pains 
taken  in  its  cultivation ;  and  the  preceding  prescriptions  will 
do  much  to  mitigate,  and  finally  banish  from  the  human  family 
so  terrible  a  scourge  of  ignorant,  suffering  man. 

These  and  all  other  preventives  and  cures  of  insanity,  ap 
ply  equally  to  the  prevention  and  cure  of  nervous  diseases 
generally,  so  that  to  cure  nervous  and  cerebral  disorder,  RE- 
STORE THE  GENERAL  HEALTH. 

177.       THE    WATER    CCRE* 

That  the  author  sets  a  high  value  upon  the  water  cure  as  a 
remedial  agent,  this  entire  work  bears  abundant  internal  evi- 
dence. Its  power  and  efficacy  probably  exceed  all  other  me- 
dicinal means  now  known.  Of  its  wonderful  healing  virtues, 
its  oxygen — of  which  it  contains  a  large  proportion — is  pro- 
bably the  chief  instrumentality — the  varions  organs  imbibing 
from  it  this  great  promoter  of  universal  life86.  Scarcely 
less  powerful  for  good  is  its  efficiency  and  unequalled  capa- 
bility for  removing  obstructions — for  taking  up  and  carrying 
out  of  the  system  those  noxious  matters  which  obstruct  the 
functions  of  life,  breed  disease,  and  hasten  death.  For  re- 
ducing inflammations,  and  consequent  pain,  too,  it  has  no 
equal  m  106  l07.  It  is  also  an  efficient  promoter  of  normal  ac- 
tion— of  universal  life l03.  For  reviving  debilitated,  withered 
organs,  for  rebuilding  broken  constitutions,  for  cleansing  the 
stomach,  bracing  the  system,  and  infusing  new  life  throughout 
all  its  borders,  water  excels  all  other  agents  combined.  It  is 
destined  to  lay  medicines  and  the  lancet  on  the  shelf  of  the 
past,  and  to  substitute  throughout  the  whole  earth  the  bless-, 
ings  of  health  for  the  miseries  of  disease,  and  to  double  many 
times  over  the  average  span  of  human  life.  No  family,  no 
individual  should  be  without  a  knowledge  of  the  best  modes 
of  applying  it  in  all  sorts  and  stages  of  debility  and  disorder. 
That  knowledge  it  was  the  original  design  of  this  volume  to 
impart.  But  its  assigned  limits  are  already  full. 

Other  diseases,  such  as  gout,  scrofula,  and  the  like,  could  be 
similarly  treated  :  yet  this  is  not  necessary,  because  the  great 


312  CURE    OF    DISEASE. 

prevention,  the  great  cure,  is  A  STRICT  OBSERVANCE  OF  THE 

LAWS  OF  HEALTH. 

178.       CONCLUSION. 

Finally,  let  old  and  young,  one  and  all,  take  every  possible 
pains  to  PRESERVE  AND  IMPROVE  HEALTH.  Behold  the  infinite 
perfection  of  these  bodies  !  Behold  the  variety  and  power  of 
their  functions.  Be  astonished  at  their  almost  angelic  capa- 
bilities of  enjoyment! l  O  who  can  contemplate  this  highest 
piece  of  divine  mechanism  without  overflowing  wonder  and 
gratitude.  And  was  SUCH  a  structure  made  to  be  abused  ? 
Shall  we  bandy  about  so  delicate,  so  complicated,  so  infinitely 
valuable  a  gift  as  if  an  old  box  ?  Shall  we  undo  all  he  has 
done  to  secure  the  invaluable  blessings  of  health  and  happi- 
ness ?  Shall  we  impair,  vitiate,  or  break  down  functions  thus 
inimitably  perfect  in  themselves,  thus  laden  with  all  the  en- 
joyments of  life  ?  Shall  we  not  rather  cherish  and  enhance 
them  ?  Shall  we  nurture  our  land  and  our  trees,  and  neglect 
our  own  bodies  ?  Shall  we  not  love  and  keep  a  present  thus 
divine,  as  well  on  account  of  its  own  intrinsic  worth  as  its 
Bountiful  Giver  ?  Shall  we  cherish  rich  earthly  legacies  yet 
abuse  a  divine  legacy  which  is  perpetually  bringing  forth, 
from  its  exhaustless  store-house,  every  enjoyment,  actual  and 
possible,  of  life  ?  Shall  we  love  earthly  donors  the  more  the 
greater  their  gifts,  and  not  worship,  with  our  whole  souls,  the 
Author  of  that  life  so  infinitely  above  all  other  bestowments  ? 
Life,  O  how  precious !  Its  wanton  waste,  how  infinitely  fool- 
ish and  wicked  !  Let  others  do  as  they  list,  but  let  my  great 
concern  be  to  OCCUPY  this  heaven-conferred  talent  while  it  lasts, 
and  to  guard  against  its  injury  with  Argus  vigilance.  God 
forbid  my  doing  or  allowing  the  least  thing  to  impair  its  effi- 
cacy or  neglecting  any  means  of  enhancing  its  capabilities. 
This  my  sacred  duty,  my  paramount  obligation  to  God  and 
my  own  soul,  let  me  study,  let  me  fulfil.  O  thou  Bestower  of 
this  "  pearl  of  great  price,"  grant  or  deny  whatever  else 
thou  wilt,  give  me  intellect  to  know,  and  the  inflexible  deter- 
mination to  practice  THE  LAWS  AND  CONDITIONS  OF  HEALTH  AND 
LIFE — an  end  which  may  this  book  go  forth  to  promote. 
" 


^ 


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